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Dieing A LOT in B'rel retrofit
mewmaster101
Member Posts: 1,239 Arc User
I seem to be dieing A LOT n my B'rel. Even during Borg alerts, i tend to go boom at least twice while fighting the 4 borg groups. I only have some mostly basic MK XII gear at the moment and no rep stuff (just got the character to level 50 during the exp weekend), but even using similar gear on my federation or romulan characters, i can do A LOT better.
I know the B'rel has the weakest hull and shield in the game for level 50 ships, but the amount of times i die seems quite a lot.
I know the B'rel has the weakest hull and shield in the game for level 50 ships, but the amount of times i die seems quite a lot.
Post edited by mewmaster101 on
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Getting blown up is part of the educational process.
Eventually, you'll be killed less often, but some blowing up is normal. I still get one-shotted sometimes. And every new situation for me, it takes time to develop some survival skills in my B'rel.
Everyone blows up, though. A good day to die, and all that
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
1. The B'Rel, like any klingon Raider, is simply dated. It paid a high price with low hull for... well for what romulans have for free now. And with shields and tons of hull^^
They'LL buff it soon a bit, but I doubt it will fix that state.
I can not advice you to use that ship currently, although, stubborn as I am, I do not follow my own advice still use a Raider too.
2. IF you want to survive with it you need defense. Pick ANYTHING buffing the defense, your hull and shield literally do not exist.
And you'll probably still die. Especially with the Borg.
If you're thinking "oh I really like this ship I want to make it work" then by all means, go get 'em!
Of course it CAN be done. Most of the guys that did it well had access to oodles of pretty gear to make it so.
You can do better for a fraction of the cost, by just switching ships. Earn the rep you need to get the pretty gear. Earn the fleet marks you need to get the pretty gear, and THEN go do goofy things in your B'rel.
EDIT: Just a note. NPC's cheat. So if you're trying to run enhanced battle cloak sci/torp bomber vs the borg, you're going to struggle needlessly.
The B'rel is fun, but WOW does it die a lot.
I would go with Thisslers advice, make it easy on yourself by using a mirror ship, probably the mirror Qin Raptor and use that until you can grind out better gear for your character first.
I use a BOP a lot on my KDF tac but I used a raptor when first doing STFs and grinding out gear first.
The B'rel using ebc used to be one of the best ships for PVE for awhile back, but then they nerfed tricobalt mines and torps and now I don't use it much in PVE at all, and when I do it decloaks to attack instead of using EBC.
do you use an armour consoles? whats your Structural integrity, Hull Plating and Armour reinforcements skills?
Kamarag and Mirror Negh'var both have LtCmdr Sci and enough tac to pull their weight. Or there's the Dyson Destroyer run in Tac mode, though it pretty much requires an Honor Guard shield to not be ill every time you look at it.
The ship was the I.K.S. Valkyrie - if my memory serves me correctly.
Now that torps are almost useless with all the new passive resists and fleet gear and op doffs, the b'rel has become obsolete. For a short Window the fleet T'Varo made a good sci/torp bomber - but passives creep has made it just a ship for harassing now.
I did take a kdf tac in a fleet b'rel with little rep and not the best gear into 3 mirror elite events today and did not die once - but on the whole it's not a brawler and it mostly went around closing rifts and powering up the transfer satellites.
On the other hand, there is the Breen set for transphasics, which work in the Dyson space... but only adequately against Borg. You just need the right setup.
Honestly, if you arent flying mega hero tank cruiser, how much more do you expect to live under beam FAW spam by the Voth?
PvP is a different story.
If i werent playing STO on an 8 inch tablet, i would be testing my setupin the mirror events. I dont have the best Brel, but i make mine work.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
I guess the question is: What are you running and what are you trying to do? Flying it like an escort? Torp bomber? PvE? PvP?
I mean, even doubling up on EptS and using the standard HE/TSS should get you through most content just fine.
Don't overlook the Fleet Kamaraq. Such an underrated ship, I like it a lot. Second-most manuverable battlecruiser in the game behind the K't'inga. And it has a Uni LT seat so it can run both LTC and LT Sci slots if you choose.
That was me! I returned about two months ago. Newromulan1 is correct, changes to game mean that those glorious days of intsta-popping Feds are over. The I.K.S. Valkyrja has basically been mothballed.
I did take her out when I got back, but getting a kill with my former setup was like pulling teeth. Only managed two. She still hasn't died though, so I guess the USS Te Pequa, and RRW Elbe would get to go on the list if it was still around.
Well, first off: Welcome back! The Valkyrja was the reason I made a torp B'rel myself.
If I remember your old setup correctly, it was Har'pengh, Quantum, Breen Cluster and a Bio-Neural for finisher?
If you've been gone for a while, you've probably missed some of the rep grind. With some rep passives and equipment, you're going to have a better time. With a sci captain B'rel, you can easily cheese it up and get some easy kills with Nukara mines :P
Sigh why do people always think the B'rel is obsolete. It may not be best for what you had in mind but there is no other ship that can has all universals and EBC, this means you have a sci ship that uses abilities while cloaked. This is huge in places like Kerrat, the amount of chaos you can do with Cmdr and Lt Cmdr sci is hilarious and fun. Its also the best way to play a sci ship to counter vapers as not being cloaked will leave you at their mercy, while being cloaked will let you wait for them to decloak to try to vape others then you can snb and sci spam them.
I had HY3 Quantums, Breen Cluster, Bio-Neural, then Hargh'peng.
I'm trying to knock out the rep and fleet stuff right now. I've faced up to the fact that the insta-pop days are over, but I have heard good things about Sci-Transphasic builds, so I am going to give it go. They sound like they will be more fun to play than the Insta-popper was too!
I cant say that i am great, and my B'rel has never been a huge damage boat since i am Sci. Plus i havent pvp'd yet. I have almost always run Commander Sci, LtCom Tac, Lt Tac, Lt Eng.
I do like the Transphasic stuff in the Dyson thing. I go to all Quantums for the Elite STFs because moar DPS, but the Dyson is easy. Breen clusters are a bit wonky since beam FAW spam shoots them. Otherwise, i use the Breen set for the extra transphasic damage.
It also feels good to come out of the sky and unleash a grav well plus a mkxii transphasic TS3 when someone is tied up in a Voth ball.
Dyson seems more about positioning anyway. Am i the only one with the Guild Wars 2 feeling about the whole Dyson thing?
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
In a nutshell, enhanced battle cloak lets you do things while it is active. Namely fire torpedos, launch mines, use certain offensive and defensive skills... like grav well, tyken's, hazard emitters, aux to sif, etc.
You become visible for a bit after certain actions, like launching torpedos, but the game doesnt comsider you decloaked. This means the enemy can now target you, although you keep some buffs, like a defensive bonus. You also retain a +15% bonus to damage under EBC, sort of like the Ambush bonus, but always on. It's all about the permanent ambush
After a couple seconds, you become invisible again.
You typically prebuff with a torpedo skill (and sometimes an attack pattern), launch everything, and let the EBC recloak you so you can set up the next pass and heal as needed. There was a time when a big alpha strike could wipe out people in one pass, but we wont see that again. Now, recloak and reassess. You also use high quality Projectile Weapon duty officers to reduce the cooldown on your torpedos after they have been fired.
Right now, the metagame seems to be around using one torpedo type rather than multiple types. Thr means one kind of tac console at a time (like transphasic infusers... or warhead yield chambers if you still go multitorpedo). Transphasic is the thing right now since shields have been buffed, but maybe not the only way. Borg in STFs (even Elite stfs) have a ton of unshielded structures, so quantums may work better for stuff like ICE.
Depending on your setup, you mix in sci skills. Grav well is one of those universal skills that everyone uses. How much sci do you want? It is up to you. I try to do more cc with a commander science officer.
If you do go for more control rather than straight up killing, it is a really safe way to play, but it takes time... despite having no hull.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
Well I have the b'rel since the day that thing went life but never used it much.
Didn't know that Grav well works though.
But for the torpedoes... Even transphasics don't do s*** against shields when I use them.
Usually I like using much sci skills on my Hegh'ta, grav well in particular.
So some advice how to get torpedo builds to work would be nice... I'd like to use one in my d'kyr too.
I took the transphasic setup, using TRIBBLE mods and my same old generic torp consoles, out against some tholians today. I have to say it isn't too bad. It is a little different playstyle making several passes, keeping distance rather than making attack runs...but it isn't too bad. I think when I get decent mods it might be worthwhile. I have yet to try transphasics in PVP, but they can't be worse than my old setup which only penetrates the shields of the incompetent now lol.
Transphasics do enough for me to handle Voth balls, including cruisers, on my own. Passthrough damage. The breen cluster does a lot, but Voth beam FAW negates some of that. Typically, pve, i try to lead with the cluster, then the buffed torpedo attack. That way, i dont recloak too early and force them to target my cluster.
And, yes, also because of the Voth, it is about keeping distance and nibbling at the edges. Running commander sci with 2 grav wells instead of APO on a Tac) is another concession from straight up damage to staying distant.
Part of it is also timing the grav well to take advantage of popping a warp core.
I dont care about shield damage on transphasics anyway since i use them for the passthrough damage.
Also, n00b breen set is a bigger straight buff to transphasic than KHG would give you, so that is another huge plus.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
It is cryptic's fault that you have to use another ship besides a BOP. Even with the upgrades on tribble the bop or any raider has been sadly neglected. I would have wanted a better shield modifier first before hull hps. The b'rel is the only raider that benefits from the hull as it is the only ship that can fire while cloaked. It was a token upgrade and nothing more considering what the rom ships were given by initial design.
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Well I'll give it a try based on your advice. I might be back for more questions^^
Partly because I'm no good in most other ships
Everything you do outside of popping enemies in the Mirror event will knock you out of cloak. Shut down a portal/rift? DECLOAK! Power on the energy thing? DECLOAK! Plus, the mirror Sci ships also can knock you out of cloak up close.
In my Hegh'ta, I do even worse at times. Had a bad time in ICE, then got blown up too often in the mirror event. Dropping Grav Well is much simpler in a B'rel than in the Hegh'ta, I think... because of the quick recloak on the B'rel. I need to shift my Hegh'ta to do more defense because my setup gets too many things mad at me.
Finally, I got fed up with my poor showing in my Hegh'ta & went back to the B'rel to do ICE. And this was with my Transphasics. (I do have an old Mk XI purple transphasic with the (Borg) mod... so that counts for something, anyway)
Granted, no Scimitars in the PUG, but I still managed to get the Tactical Cube to target me (and one-shot me at least one time). So I can still pull aggro off a group with transphasic torpedos, even against Borg (who are always stupidly without shields). It's not like it was a bad group (we still got the bonus), but I still managed to get the Tac Cube on me.
Anyway, I can do the Mirror thing in my B'rel. It's just a pain in the behind to do it. Of course, I tend to survive much longer in the B'rel... so, whatever. These kinds of things are a good reminder of why I don't need any other ship except the B'rel...
EDIT:
Oh, in the Qin Raptor, the Mirror thing was easy. The Mirror event doesn't really require a lot of finesse, anyway. With both my KDF Sci (Antiproton weapons) and my KDF Tac (cheesy Disruptors), it was easy to mow down the Mirror Starfleet ships. That's why I tried going to the Hegh'ta... but the Hegh'ta simply couldn't work for me, for whatever reason.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)