Well, Iskandus, while I appreciate your feedback, I'm quite happy with where I am with my current build for a couple of reasons:
1. While it may not be as tanky as my cruiser, it is definitely MUCH harder to hit. And the speed + maneuverability allows me to keep spikey escorts from concentrating firepower on a single shield facing while letting me put more beams on target. What good is an eighth beam or even DEM when you can only get 3 of them on target because you can't shake that Bug or T'Varo from your tail?
2. The Aux situation isn't really the problem that you're making it out to be. I have my power levels tuned in such a way that, whenever A2B is on CD, Aux has 75+ points thanks to the leech. In fact, as long as I keep firing, I have plenty of juice for healing or to activate A2D as part of my hybrid cycle. Plus it gives me 4x subsystems into AMP, which helps mitigate the loss of overcap from A2B being on CD.,
The only time I have trouble with Aux is when my WCE procs and I trigger A2B with Aux artificially boosted to 110+. Then I will sometimes get into a "negative Aux" situation. The symptoms are similar to someone targeting my Aux subsystem, so I'm already familiar with that potential scenario and know to take steps to keep alive while those powers are offline (EPtS, APO, SCap and Borg 2-Piece help with that).
3. Speed is king in PvP. The ability to hit 230+ with just EPtE/Evasive means I can literally fly circles around slower opponents while giving the speediest escorts a run for their money. And while I could turn my cruiser into a rocketship by loading up on these same powers/skills, I could never control it properly. I'd end up overshooting targets, falling out of firing range when circling, and generally power sliding all over the place. By contrast, with my Hirogen I can just cycle EPtE/EPtS in my directional keys keybind and maintain a nearly constant 100+ impulse while retaining full control of the ship.
Bottom Line: This is the ship I've been waiting for. It has just the right characteristics to allow me to implement my ideal PvP play style. In fact, my only real complaint is the look of the thing. Hence my decision to break with the "squirrel" naming convention and head in a different (yet visually appropriate) direction:
U.S.S. Fugly Duckling.
RCK
P.S. - I really don't know why you quit the game. Your Ludavix build was truly OP. The only ship I genuinely feared in STO. Why you never brought it to Ker'rat is beyond me.
Anyway... I was never knocking Rck as a pilot. The opposite hes a good pilot which is why it makes me sad to see him constantly loading up the FAW crutch
Thank you for the kind words, Antonio. However, I disagree that FAW is a crutch - at least not in the way I employ it. My main use of BFAW3 is as a rapid fire mechanism. This is especially true against single targets, where the effect can be quite devastating. Activating FAW for the sake of "spamming" is never my intent - though the ability to do AoE damage in a multi-ship battle is clearly a benefit.
But as for the play style being somehow "disappointing" given my supposed "skill" as a pilot, I'd counter that it's the cannon play style that's truly boring/rote.
Pick a target. Line up. Shoot. Pick another target. Line up. Shoot. As soon as you deviate from that mode - for example, you're mixing it up at close range with multiple opponents - the play style falls apart.
Your only really option is to use speed to break contact, turn, and strafe them on the way back into the fray. Otherwise, you spend most of your time trying to line-up your main guns while your turrets/KCB are the only things making any sort of contact.
It's frustrating, annoying, and reminiscent of old world jousting matches. If I wanted to joust, I'd play some medieval RP game, not Star Trek Online.
And finally, regardless of how you view my play style, you cannot dispute the fact that it's EFFECTIVE. In a fedball vs. klinkball situation, I'm the guy zipping through the middle of the battle dishing out a constant stream of pressure damage against multiple targets. None of this line-up, strafe, turn, strafe some more nonsense. I'm right there, in the thick of things, making a difference.
The whole experience is fast, intense, and a lot of fun. I just can't get that same sensation from cannon-play. In other words, I'd rather be *the* difference in a close match rather than just another tac-scort trying (and usually failing) to spike the opposition's whale ships into space dust.
But as for the play style being somehow "disappointing" given my supposed "skill" as a pilot, I'd counter that it's the cannon play style that's truly boring/rote.
Pick a target. Line up. Shoot. Pick another target. Line up. Shoot. As soon as you deviate from that mode - for example, you're mixing it up at close range with multiple opponents - the play style falls apart.
Your only really option is to use speed to break contact, turn, and strafe them on the way back into the fray. Otherwise, you spend most of your time trying to line-up your main guns while your turrets/KCB are the only things making any sort of contact.
It's frustrating, annoying, and reminiscent of old world jousting matches. If I wanted to joust, I'd play some medieval RP game, not Star Trek Online.
This is a description of most days I have in an escort. There's another level, though. Anytime I had the great privilege to queue on the same team as a mean motor scooter named Blackjack I always tried to keep up. The most amazing thing would happen: shots lined themselves up. His approach always flowed right into the next attack. I don't know if it was coldly calculating 6 moves ahead or a more instinctual thing, but as soon as he scored a kill he had the next target under fire. If I was a little off in my angles I wouldn't be ready for the next shot and would fall behind, then it's like being on two separate rollercoasters and unable to get back on his track.
I'm not knocking you as a player or anybody else for that matter; god knows I can't even call myself a PvP'er these days. I'm just saying that what you're describing isn't the end-all of a cannon escort.
I'm not knocking you as a player or anybody else for that matter; god knows I can't even call myself a PvP'er these days. I'm just saying that what you're describing isn't the end-all of a cannon escort.
He was fast on targets. There are a handful of players that are like that, always seem to be in the exact right place all the time.
I think we have lost Rck though lol... his argument against cannons is that its mindless... cause you know having to choose and line up a target is mindless, hail the faw.
I'm sorry but it doesn't take any talent to run around with RSP up 20% of the time... and faw the game to death. I am not saying Rck isn't talented the opposite is true in fact which is why it annoys me frankly.
Same can be said about those who knowingly abuse the broken DHC where each shot can shoot for upward of 10K dps per dhc per shot and over 100K in total dmg output within less than 2 seconds. Can anyone say the same about beams? Nope. No way beams can do 100K+ in less 2 seconds. The only reason this abuse is left alone is because 75% of STO players are in an Escort / Destroyer which uses cannons. Cryptic admitted already this is broken but nerfing it will cause rage. Similar to how TT distribute shields instantly to keep Escorts in the fight and allow them to stay in their firing arc - nerfing TT = nerfing Escorts = RAGE. Should I go on? If you truly care about broken mechanism, your crusade should really start with DHC/CRF where CRF can boost the stated base dmg of a DHC easily by ten folds whereas BFAW will not boost the base dmg of each beam anywhere close to that.
I believe the RSP uptime is actually closer to 43% because RSP's 90 seconds CD is reduced its GCD of 45 seconds. With doff, the RSP can last 20 seconds. Therefore, 20 seconds / 45 seconds = 43% of uptime, not 20%. Surprisingly, I see a lot of Bug ships doing this RSP cycling. In other words, this is not limited to any career or ships and has nothing to do with whether someone uses BFAW or not.
FAW is busted because it is 100% fire mode. There is no danger of loosing any DPS at all because every single shot is going to hit something.
Nonsense, total and absolute nonsense - BFAW still has accuracy issues - in fact it is bugged but not in a good way for the BFAW user. I am totally puzzled as to what make you think BFAW has 100% accuracy? In fact, there is a known bug which affects BFAW such that Acc overflow doesn't translate into additional CrtD and CtrH correctly, which is causing BFAW to be underperforming. In case you really aren't aware, which I am skeptical, here is the thread in question and an acknowledgement from the Dev :
I don't know if you Cryptic guys read through the entire posts, but the bigger thread that says that EWS doesnt work for FAW came to the conclusion that EWS works as expected and the real problem is that FAW doesn't benefit from accuracy overflow - neither for Critical Hit Chance nor for Critical Severity. This seems to be the only remaining bug with FAW, but it's still quite annoying since it will lower your critchance by a severe margin (2.5%).
Yes, we're looking into it. Accuracy Overflow won't currently work for any power that "ignores accuracy" - powers that have any autohit stage.
Acc Overflow is a really arcane mechanic that doesn't message well at all. Fixing it will be a widespread change to the mechanic as a whole, not just a change to a flag on Fire at Will. It will take a little while, but it's in the pipeline to be adjusted to work.
Note the Dev post above on Feb 5th, 2014 acknowledging the bug affecting BFAW negatively.
Further to that, the Dev went on to explain how BFAW actually work from a game design perspective and I quote :
Fire at will does have an autohit stage. When you activate Fire At Will, here's what happens to produce the desired end effect:
1.) You gain a "Mode" on your character that lasts for <duration>. While that mode is on your character, all Beam Array and Dual Beam Bank powers are redirected from their standard mode of fire into "Fire At Will" mode.
2.) You activate a Beam Array or DBB. It uses its Fire At Will power. This power emanates a cone in the direction of the weapon's firing arc, automatically hitting 2 targets within that cone. Any targets hit by this cone send a message back to your ship, telling it to shoot them.
3.) Your ship receives the message from all enemies struck in part 2. It then fires single shots at each and every one of them. This stage of the power rolls ToHit rolls based on your accuracy and your target's defense.
Stage 2 has to be autohit for the art to work. Stage 2 has to not be flagged as a "Directed Energy" power for power drain to not count doubly for this ability. Stage 3 has to be flagged as a "Directed Energy" power for procs to work and for power drain to work at all. The power has to be structured in this complex way for it to work the way it does - firing on random ships within the arc, updating which target it hits with each volley.
This clarification from the Dev confirms BFAW does not have "100% fire mode" with "no danger of loosing any dps at all" as you incorrectly believe, see the bolded part.
As a result, your case against BFAW is based on false information and incorrect interpretation without any basis. The most broken mechanism in STO remains DHC and CRF, which is why the DHC/CRF combo remains by far the most popular, especially among PvPers whereas BFAW is a distant 2nd and more popular with the PvE crowd. In any event, BFAW is easily countered by Aceton Assimilators whereas DHC/CRF aren't affected by AA.
If you want to make sure your organized PvP games are truly balanced, you should instead actively discourage people from using the DHC and CRF in combination because that's knowingly abused a broken mechanism to achieve inflated burst DPS. But you won't, I know, because anyone who do so would cause rage for merely suggesting it and would have no more success in campaigning for a reducing the shield distribution ability of TT.
Cannons are now an exploit ? lol dude we are not playing the same game. Even Rck admits he does more dmg with beams... my galor out dmgs by bug ship... claiming DHC are doing more dps then beams right now with faw is just silly.
Also who said anything about ACC... last I checked EVERY weapon had to deal with acc vs defense... this isn't something unique to beams.
I am talking about ON fire time... its why NO other game developer anywhere creates skills / weapons that hit ALL targets in a sphere. They are always limited to either really bad up times... dps reductions... or very hard limits on the number of targets they can hit. NO one creates a skill that is AOE increases dmg by multiples and can be spammed, its just plain horrible design and I think any Dev brought in from another developer would just laugh very very hard. There is very good reason. IF you are not following my reason then well you are just as silly as the devs at Cryptic that thought it was a good idea to begin with.
To be fair... the very very first version of faw was fine due to the way weapons drew power. With that mechanic in place there was major draw backs to having a skill that turned your weapons into 100% up time on arc. The point is there is no wasted cycles ever with faw. (or almost never, and no I am not talking about misses due to acc)... under the old mechanic this dropped your power down hard when you activated FAW... which was the balancing mechanic that made it not OP. (although most developers would have seen the obvious issues a mechanic like that would cause down the road)... however due to multiple staff departures, the game has been stuck with a skill that has had every mehcanic that balanced it out removed or power creeped away.
Anyway your dev quots are NOT the point... it isn't about ACC... its about 100% up time on the weapon cycles.
Iskandus I think bottom line you misunderstand what I was saying.
I am not saying there is some ACC base mechanic issue with faw.
I am saying the mechanic itself is BAD design. Majorly bad design. So bad that I KNOW that other big house developers think its nuts. In a vent chat I had with a Bio dev during the TOR beta, we talked about STO a bit and when I explained faw his response was..... "Really?" followed by 10 seconds of silence followed by "wow thats stupid"... that was there PvP dev at the time. lol
Well, Iskandus, while I appreciate your feedback, I'm quite happy with where I am with my current build for a couple of reasons:
1. While it may not be as tanky as my cruiser, it is definitely MUCH harder to hit. And the speed + maneuverability allows me to keep spikey escorts from concentrating firepower on a single shield facing while letting me put more beams on target. What good is an eighth beam or even DEM when you can only get 3 of them on target because you can't shake that Bug or T'Varo from your tail?
I see your point though I am surprised your cruiser with APO, EPTE, A2D and EM can't shake a Bug from your tail. To me, it seems almost impossible to do even with a Bug ship's turn rate. Another thing you should consider is constantly changing your speed with speed toggle and pilot an erratic flight path, make the pursuing ship impossible to anticipate which way you are going to move. To be honest, this was not an issue I had to deal with because a Bug ship trying to do that with me can never stay in the firing arc for more than 3 seconds. I can easily force them to break off pursuit in many ways, one of which ways, I am sure you are very familiar with but I won't say it out loud here.
2. The Aux situation isn't really the problem that you're making it out to be. I have my power levels tuned in such a way that, whenever A2B is on CD, Aux has 75+ points thanks to the leech. In fact, as long as I keep firing, I have plenty of juice for healing or to activate A2D as part of my hybrid cycle. Plus it gives me 4x subsystems into AMP, which helps mitigate the loss of overcap from A2B being on CD.,
The only time I have trouble with Aux is when my WCE procs and I trigger A2B with Aux artificially boosted to 110+. Then I will sometimes get into a "negative Aux" situation. The symptoms are similar to someone targeting my Aux subsystem, so I'm already familiar with that potential scenario and know to take steps to keep alive while those powers are offline (EPtS, APO, SCap and Borg 2-Piece help with that).
Couple of points here, your Leech can also cause you to do Aux overdrain, therefore, disable your Aux based ability so this will actually happen quite more often than just WCE proc.
While you believe EPtS and APO, SCap and Borg 2-piece can keep you alive while your Aux is disabled, if your opponent anticipates and actively cause your Aux to go offline during crunch time and go on the offensive at that point, you can be in serious trouble because all your heals and defensive mechanism are Aux dependent. You will have no hull heal for a full 10 sec without HE. Even when Aux starts to recover, it can take quite a while for Aux to recuperate to its resting point, in your case, at around 75. Pressing HE while Aux = 15-20 is not going to heal much hull at all, realistically, the 10 seconds disable duration + the wait time for Aux to recover to a reasonable level may mean your hull heal is out for 15+ seconds, not a short duration by any definition, especially when your shields are failing and your RSP got nuked immediately by somebody.
Perhaps you are right, this aux disable really isn't a big deal for you most of the time. For me, I see your Aux disable as a major opportunity to strike a decisive blow in the 10-15 seconds where your Aux will be completely disabled or remained at a level that Aux skills are essentially ineffective. But that's just my $0.02. Anyway, for your purpose in Kerrat, I am satisfied with your justification. I am just pointing up a potential weakness I am seeing since you asked for feedback. If you feel it has been manageable in Kerrat thus far, then I am sure you know yourself the best.
3. Speed is king in PvP. The ability to hit 230+ with just EPtE/Evasive means I can literally fly circles around slower opponents while giving the speediest escorts a run for their money. And while I could turn my cruiser into a rocketship by loading up on these same powers/skills, I could never control it properly. I'd end up overshooting targets, falling out of firing range when circling, and generally power sliding all over the place. By contrast, with my Hirogen I can just cycle EPtE/EPtS in my directional keys keybind and maintain a nearly constant 100+ impulse while retaining full control of the ship.
I agree.
Bottom Line: This is the ship I've been waiting for. It has just the right characteristics to allow me to implement my ideal PvP play style. In fact, my only real complaint is the look of the thing. Hence my decision to break with the "squirrel" naming convention and head in a different (yet visually appropriate) direction:
U.S.S. Fugly Duckling.
RCK
The look is a big deal I agree. Perhaps you would consider this ship instead :
- Identical boff layout as the Hirogen Escort
- Higher Impulse modifier = much higher overall speed
- More Hull Points, the tankiest of all Escorts
- Essentially identical shield modifier
P.S. - I really don't know why you quit the game. Your Ludavix build was truly OP. The only ship I genuinely feared in STO. Why you never brought it to Ker'rat is beyond me.
RCK
I did, many times in fact you just don't remember I think because it's been so long. Remember a few times, who saved your escort from Fonz's jaw? Go make the HOBO cry in Kerrat with your new OP ship.
Same can be said about those who knowingly abuse the broken DHC where each shot can shoot for upward of 10K dps per dhc per shot and over 100K in total dmg output within less than 2 seconds. Can anyone say the same about beams? Nope. No way beams can do 100K+ in less 2 seconds. The only reason this abuse is left alone is because 75% of STO players are in an Escort / Destroyer which uses cannons. Cryptic admitted already this is broken but nerfing it will cause rage.
i think you mentioned that you dont play anymore? it shows.
- Identical boff layout as the Hirogen Escort
- Higher Impulse modifier = much higher overall speed
- More Hull Points, the tankiest of all Escorts
- Essentially identical shield modifier
And therein lies the rub: For my aux-vulnerability to be exploited requires significant coordination and pre-planning, typically by multiple players. Because, frankly, no single player is going to kill me fast enough to exploit my disabled aux. Spikey escorts aren't shooting for subsystems, they're trying to pop my hull. Cruisers are just FAW-blasting everything and trying to out-tank me. And Sci ships, though usually piloted by more intelligent, forward thinkers, lack the firepower to take advantage of the situation. Unless, of course, I'm dumb enough to unload into their FBP, which thankfully I'm not.
Again, I'm taking on 6-8 hobos at once and surviving longer than I would ever have in my cruiser, mostly because I can outmaneuver/outrun them and generally keep them scrambling to catch my "greased watermelon" of a ship. In fact, it typically takes some combination of subnuke, multiple tractor beams and someone targeting my engines to bring me down. Against fewer aggressors, or 1v1, I'm holding my own much better than before. If Baukolotz can't bring me down after 10 minutes of jousting with his uber-spikey t'varo, I figure I'm doing OK. And in the chaos of a 10v10 private match, I'm walking away relatively unscathed while dishing out plenty of pain.
As for the Vet ship, I'd love to try one, especially the Fleet version. But I'm an F2P player, which means I don't have access to any such Cryptic/PWE loyalty rewards.
As for the Vet ship, I'd love to try one, especially the Fleet version. But I'm an F2P player, which means I don't have access to any such Cryptic/PWE loyalty rewards.
RCK
Honestly, you are not a poor student who just graduated from college. I don't understand why you wouldn't spend what is really a peanut sum of money for you to get a decent ship. I was a F2P too but that doesn't mean I can only limit myself to free ships. Flying a Hirogen ship? One of the reasons why I went back to non-lock box ship is because I was sick & tired of the non-trek ships hijacking the game. I really couldn't care how OP the Elachi or Hirogen ship may be, I would never fly one. Even getting the dino ship made me quite uncomfortable and ultimately abandoned it not because it wasn't good but because it's P2W and not really a Starfleet ship. To be honest, even the Wells was pretty borderline although it appeared in the Voyager series.
Honestly, you are not a poor student who just graduated from college. I don't understand why you wouldn't spend what is really a peanut sum of money for you to get a decent ship. I was a F2P too but that doesn't mean I can only limit myself to free ships. Flying a Hirogen ship? One of the reasons why I went back to non-lock box ship is because I was sick & tired of the non-trek ships hijacking the game. I really couldn't care how OP the Elachi or Hirogen ship may be, I would never fly one. Even getting the dino ship made me quite uncomfortable and ultimately abandoned it not because it wasn't good but because it's P2W and not really a Starfleet ship. To be honest, even the Wells was pretty borderline although it appeared in the Voyager series.
No, but I do have a wife, and she already disapproves of my spending time "playing games." Spending $200 or more on said games would likely be grounds for divorce.
As for the "non-canon" aspect of my ship selection, well, that's just how the game is currently constituted. Cryptic long-ago abandoned any pretext of maintaining canonical adherence to the Star Trek universe. If I want to be competitive in PvP, I need to find the right platform. That this platform happens to be Hirogen (and ugly as sin) is irrelevant. And it's technically still "canon" in that it was featured in an actual episode.
If it helps, think of it as an opportunistic Starfleet officer procuring a captured Hirogen ship (perhaps brought back by a lost Voyager crew member) for use in battling the KDF/Romulans, neither of whom have ever seen such a ship before and have no clue how to deal with one.
Comments
1. While it may not be as tanky as my cruiser, it is definitely MUCH harder to hit. And the speed + maneuverability allows me to keep spikey escorts from concentrating firepower on a single shield facing while letting me put more beams on target. What good is an eighth beam or even DEM when you can only get 3 of them on target because you can't shake that Bug or T'Varo from your tail?
2. The Aux situation isn't really the problem that you're making it out to be. I have my power levels tuned in such a way that, whenever A2B is on CD, Aux has 75+ points thanks to the leech. In fact, as long as I keep firing, I have plenty of juice for healing or to activate A2D as part of my hybrid cycle. Plus it gives me 4x subsystems into AMP, which helps mitigate the loss of overcap from A2B being on CD.,
The only time I have trouble with Aux is when my WCE procs and I trigger A2B with Aux artificially boosted to 110+. Then I will sometimes get into a "negative Aux" situation. The symptoms are similar to someone targeting my Aux subsystem, so I'm already familiar with that potential scenario and know to take steps to keep alive while those powers are offline (EPtS, APO, SCap and Borg 2-Piece help with that).
3. Speed is king in PvP. The ability to hit 230+ with just EPtE/Evasive means I can literally fly circles around slower opponents while giving the speediest escorts a run for their money. And while I could turn my cruiser into a rocketship by loading up on these same powers/skills, I could never control it properly. I'd end up overshooting targets, falling out of firing range when circling, and generally power sliding all over the place. By contrast, with my Hirogen I can just cycle EPtE/EPtS in my directional keys keybind and maintain a nearly constant 100+ impulse while retaining full control of the ship.
Bottom Line: This is the ship I've been waiting for. It has just the right characteristics to allow me to implement my ideal PvP play style. In fact, my only real complaint is the look of the thing. Hence my decision to break with the "squirrel" naming convention and head in a different (yet visually appropriate) direction:
U.S.S. Fugly Duckling.
RCK
P.S. - I really don't know why you quit the game. Your Ludavix build was truly OP. The only ship I genuinely feared in STO. Why you never brought it to Ker'rat is beyond me.
RCK
Thank you for the kind words, Antonio. However, I disagree that FAW is a crutch - at least not in the way I employ it. My main use of BFAW3 is as a rapid fire mechanism. This is especially true against single targets, where the effect can be quite devastating. Activating FAW for the sake of "spamming" is never my intent - though the ability to do AoE damage in a multi-ship battle is clearly a benefit.
But as for the play style being somehow "disappointing" given my supposed "skill" as a pilot, I'd counter that it's the cannon play style that's truly boring/rote.
Pick a target. Line up. Shoot. Pick another target. Line up. Shoot. As soon as you deviate from that mode - for example, you're mixing it up at close range with multiple opponents - the play style falls apart.
Your only really option is to use speed to break contact, turn, and strafe them on the way back into the fray. Otherwise, you spend most of your time trying to line-up your main guns while your turrets/KCB are the only things making any sort of contact.
It's frustrating, annoying, and reminiscent of old world jousting matches. If I wanted to joust, I'd play some medieval RP game, not Star Trek Online.
And finally, regardless of how you view my play style, you cannot dispute the fact that it's EFFECTIVE. In a fedball vs. klinkball situation, I'm the guy zipping through the middle of the battle dishing out a constant stream of pressure damage against multiple targets. None of this line-up, strafe, turn, strafe some more nonsense. I'm right there, in the thick of things, making a difference.
The whole experience is fast, intense, and a lot of fun. I just can't get that same sensation from cannon-play. In other words, I'd rather be *the* difference in a close match rather than just another tac-scort trying (and usually failing) to spike the opposition's whale ships into space dust.
RCK
This is a description of most days I have in an escort. There's another level, though. Anytime I had the great privilege to queue on the same team as a mean motor scooter named Blackjack I always tried to keep up. The most amazing thing would happen: shots lined themselves up. His approach always flowed right into the next attack. I don't know if it was coldly calculating 6 moves ahead or a more instinctual thing, but as soon as he scored a kill he had the next target under fire. If I was a little off in my angles I wouldn't be ready for the next shot and would fall behind, then it's like being on two separate rollercoasters and unable to get back on his track.
I'm not knocking you as a player or anybody else for that matter; god knows I can't even call myself a PvP'er these days. I'm just saying that what you're describing isn't the end-all of a cannon escort.
He was fast on targets. There are a handful of players that are like that, always seem to be in the exact right place all the time.
I think we have lost Rck though lol... his argument against cannons is that its mindless... cause you know having to choose and line up a target is mindless, hail the faw.
Same can be said about those who knowingly abuse the broken DHC where each shot can shoot for upward of 10K dps per dhc per shot and over 100K in total dmg output within less than 2 seconds. Can anyone say the same about beams? Nope. No way beams can do 100K+ in less 2 seconds. The only reason this abuse is left alone is because 75% of STO players are in an Escort / Destroyer which uses cannons. Cryptic admitted already this is broken but nerfing it will cause rage. Similar to how TT distribute shields instantly to keep Escorts in the fight and allow them to stay in their firing arc - nerfing TT = nerfing Escorts = RAGE. Should I go on? If you truly care about broken mechanism, your crusade should really start with DHC/CRF where CRF can boost the stated base dmg of a DHC easily by ten folds whereas BFAW will not boost the base dmg of each beam anywhere close to that.
I believe the RSP uptime is actually closer to 43% because RSP's 90 seconds CD is reduced its GCD of 45 seconds. With doff, the RSP can last 20 seconds. Therefore, 20 seconds / 45 seconds = 43% of uptime, not 20%. Surprisingly, I see a lot of Bug ships doing this RSP cycling. In other words, this is not limited to any career or ships and has nothing to do with whether someone uses BFAW or not.
Nonsense, total and absolute nonsense - BFAW still has accuracy issues - in fact it is bugged but not in a good way for the BFAW user. I am totally puzzled as to what make you think BFAW has 100% accuracy?
EWS works fine for FAW, the problem is ACC overflow
Note the Dev post above on Feb 5th, 2014 acknowledging the bug affecting BFAW negatively.
Further to that, the Dev went on to explain how BFAW actually work from a game design perspective and I quote :
This clarification from the Dev confirms BFAW does not have "100% fire mode" with "no danger of loosing any dps at all" as you incorrectly believe, see the bolded part.
As a result, your case against BFAW is based on false information and incorrect interpretation without any basis. The most broken mechanism in STO remains DHC and CRF, which is why the DHC/CRF combo remains by far the most popular, especially among PvPers whereas BFAW is a distant 2nd and more popular with the PvE crowd. In any event, BFAW is easily countered by Aceton Assimilators whereas DHC/CRF aren't affected by AA.
If you want to make sure your organized PvP games are truly balanced, you should instead actively discourage people from using the DHC and CRF in combination because that's knowingly abused a broken mechanism to achieve inflated burst DPS. But you won't, I know, because anyone who do so would cause rage for merely suggesting it and would have no more success in campaigning for a reducing the shield distribution ability of TT.
Also who said anything about ACC... last I checked EVERY weapon had to deal with acc vs defense... this isn't something unique to beams.
I am talking about ON fire time... its why NO other game developer anywhere creates skills / weapons that hit ALL targets in a sphere. They are always limited to either really bad up times... dps reductions... or very hard limits on the number of targets they can hit. NO one creates a skill that is AOE increases dmg by multiples and can be spammed, its just plain horrible design and I think any Dev brought in from another developer would just laugh very very hard. There is very good reason. IF you are not following my reason then well you are just as silly as the devs at Cryptic that thought it was a good idea to begin with.
To be fair... the very very first version of faw was fine due to the way weapons drew power. With that mechanic in place there was major draw backs to having a skill that turned your weapons into 100% up time on arc. The point is there is no wasted cycles ever with faw. (or almost never, and no I am not talking about misses due to acc)... under the old mechanic this dropped your power down hard when you activated FAW... which was the balancing mechanic that made it not OP. (although most developers would have seen the obvious issues a mechanic like that would cause down the road)... however due to multiple staff departures, the game has been stuck with a skill that has had every mehcanic that balanced it out removed or power creeped away.
Anyway your dev quots are NOT the point... it isn't about ACC... its about 100% up time on the weapon cycles.
I am not saying there is some ACC base mechanic issue with faw.
I am saying the mechanic itself is BAD design. Majorly bad design. So bad that I KNOW that other big house developers think its nuts. In a vent chat I had with a Bio dev during the TOR beta, we talked about STO a bit and when I explained faw his response was..... "Really?" followed by 10 seconds of silence followed by "wow thats stupid"... that was there PvP dev at the time. lol
I see your point though I am surprised your cruiser with APO, EPTE, A2D and EM can't shake a Bug from your tail. To me, it seems almost impossible to do even with a Bug ship's turn rate. Another thing you should consider is constantly changing your speed with speed toggle and pilot an erratic flight path, make the pursuing ship impossible to anticipate which way you are going to move. To be honest, this was not an issue I had to deal with because a Bug ship trying to do that with me can never stay in the firing arc for more than 3 seconds. I can easily force them to break off pursuit in many ways, one of which ways, I am sure you are very familiar with but I won't say it out loud here.
Couple of points here, your Leech can also cause you to do Aux overdrain, therefore, disable your Aux based ability so this will actually happen quite more often than just WCE proc.
While you believe EPtS and APO, SCap and Borg 2-piece can keep you alive while your Aux is disabled, if your opponent anticipates and actively cause your Aux to go offline during crunch time and go on the offensive at that point, you can be in serious trouble because all your heals and defensive mechanism are Aux dependent. You will have no hull heal for a full 10 sec without HE. Even when Aux starts to recover, it can take quite a while for Aux to recuperate to its resting point, in your case, at around 75. Pressing HE while Aux = 15-20 is not going to heal much hull at all, realistically, the 10 seconds disable duration + the wait time for Aux to recover to a reasonable level may mean your hull heal is out for 15+ seconds, not a short duration by any definition, especially when your shields are failing and your RSP got nuked immediately by somebody.
Perhaps you are right, this aux disable really isn't a big deal for you most of the time. For me, I see your Aux disable as a major opportunity to strike a decisive blow in the 10-15 seconds where your Aux will be completely disabled or remained at a level that Aux skills are essentially ineffective. But that's just my $0.02. Anyway, for your purpose in Kerrat, I am satisfied with your justification. I am just pointing up a potential weakness I am seeing since you asked for feedback. If you feel it has been manageable in Kerrat thus far, then I am sure you know yourself the best.
I agree.
The look is a big deal I agree. Perhaps you would consider this ship instead :
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Chimera_Heavy_Destroyer
- Identical boff layout as the Hirogen Escort
- Higher Impulse modifier = much higher overall speed
- More Hull Points, the tankiest of all Escorts
- Essentially identical shield modifier
I did, many times in fact you just don't remember I think because it's been so long. Remember a few times, who saved your escort from Fonz's jaw? Go make the HOBO cry in Kerrat with your new OP ship.
i think you mentioned that you dont play anymore? it shows.
And therein lies the rub: For my aux-vulnerability to be exploited requires significant coordination and pre-planning, typically by multiple players. Because, frankly, no single player is going to kill me fast enough to exploit my disabled aux. Spikey escorts aren't shooting for subsystems, they're trying to pop my hull. Cruisers are just FAW-blasting everything and trying to out-tank me. And Sci ships, though usually piloted by more intelligent, forward thinkers, lack the firepower to take advantage of the situation. Unless, of course, I'm dumb enough to unload into their FBP, which thankfully I'm not.
Again, I'm taking on 6-8 hobos at once and surviving longer than I would ever have in my cruiser, mostly because I can outmaneuver/outrun them and generally keep them scrambling to catch my "greased watermelon" of a ship. In fact, it typically takes some combination of subnuke, multiple tractor beams and someone targeting my engines to bring me down. Against fewer aggressors, or 1v1, I'm holding my own much better than before. If Baukolotz can't bring me down after 10 minutes of jousting with his uber-spikey t'varo, I figure I'm doing OK. And in the chaos of a 10v10 private match, I'm walking away relatively unscathed while dishing out plenty of pain.
As for the Vet ship, I'd love to try one, especially the Fleet version. But I'm an F2P player, which means I don't have access to any such Cryptic/PWE loyalty rewards.
RCK
Honestly, you are not a poor student who just graduated from college. I don't understand why you wouldn't spend what is really a peanut sum of money for you to get a decent ship. I was a F2P too but that doesn't mean I can only limit myself to free ships. Flying a Hirogen ship? One of the reasons why I went back to non-lock box ship is because I was sick & tired of the non-trek ships hijacking the game. I really couldn't care how OP the Elachi or Hirogen ship may be, I would never fly one. Even getting the dino ship made me quite uncomfortable and ultimately abandoned it not because it wasn't good but because it's P2W and not really a Starfleet ship. To be honest, even the Wells was pretty borderline although it appeared in the Voyager series.
No, but I do have a wife, and she already disapproves of my spending time "playing games." Spending $200 or more on said games would likely be grounds for divorce.
As for the "non-canon" aspect of my ship selection, well, that's just how the game is currently constituted. Cryptic long-ago abandoned any pretext of maintaining canonical adherence to the Star Trek universe. If I want to be competitive in PvP, I need to find the right platform. That this platform happens to be Hirogen (and ugly as sin) is irrelevant. And it's technically still "canon" in that it was featured in an actual episode.
If it helps, think of it as an opportunistic Starfleet officer procuring a captured Hirogen ship (perhaps brought back by a lost Voyager crew member) for use in battling the KDF/Romulans, neither of whom have ever seen such a ship before and have no clue how to deal with one.
RCK