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Switched from Cannons Online to A2B Beams Online...seriously!?
dark4blood
Member Posts: 1,192 Arc User
There are some serious balance problems with this game. Why does Cryptic keep making special cannon weapons, even forced ones with the new Dyson ship, yet now they are basically useless when it comes to DPS. The weakest skill of all is Rapid Cannon Fire, with the limited firing range of Heavy Cannons, you can't spam attacks due to it also having a penalty per shot. I have to say, the Devs may play this game but they seriously don't pay any ******* attention. This game seems to get more unbalanced and more grindy every day.
One of the most powerful ships in the show, and their cash cow, is nothing compared to A2B on ANY beam ship. Most are just getting the bug so they can put it on the Jem-Hadar Dreadnaught. They really need to work on balance but considering they have PVP and Crafting to fix over the last 4 years I don't expect this until a new game is made. So much for the devs listening, expect Season 9 to be more of the same.
One of the most powerful ships in the show, and their cash cow, is nothing compared to A2B on ANY beam ship. Most are just getting the bug so they can put it on the Jem-Hadar Dreadnaught. They really need to work on balance but considering they have PVP and Crafting to fix over the last 4 years I don't expect this until a new game is made. So much for the devs listening, expect Season 9 to be more of the same.
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Ppl are a2batting their cannon bug ships.:cool:
And Cryptic is so scared to have the "escort online" meme back, they keep giving new toys for cruisers/raiders/sci, like command aura, dual deflectors etc... and nothing to escorts.
Just look the revamped MU, sci have a bonus closing rifts, cruiser for the defense array, and escort ? Nothing, I suppose they are just there to deal with the threat, but what's the point ? An a2b cruiser can activate the defense array faster, and its AOE DPS (which is everything in this mission) will be much higher.
I can't wait until they nerf a2b, and buff sci back to what they were (it seems they are the next in the neverending wheel of the FOTM build). I'll drink some tears, from the same people that currently say they doesn't care about balance, because cruisers are finally useful to something.
PvP doesnt even rely on raw deeps, so that is a moot point there entirely.
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
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I've been switching my cannons out for beams too.
At least nobody worth listening to.
The only people who care about what form their DPS comes in are those who simply care about making numbers to begin with. If someone simply cares about making numbers, why do they care what form it is in?
Whether you're in an escort or a cruiser, it's clear the only reason you play the game is to create large numbers. You simply can't reconcile show canonocity with the desire to have the largest DPS e-peen in STO.
You either have an investment in one or the other, you can't have both.
If I want to create large numbers, I will open Calculator.exe and start hitting the numpad. Nobody cares what numbers I create in STO with my bugship. Nobody cares if I can finish The Cure in 5.2 seconds flat. Nobody cares if I'm good at the broken facet of STO they refer to as pvp.
And even if someone cared, they more than likely don't care if I was using a canon ship to get those numbers.
People who care about DPS will move build to build, ship to ship, cookie cutter to cookie cutter, flavor of the month to flavor of the month. As previously stated, it is the cycle of STO.
If you don't like the cycle, then break yourself out of it. Break yourself out of the mindset. Because it won't change.
Best post I've read on these forums this month.
Definately in the top 10.
I care about your DPS if you are on my elite STF team and can't stop three probes from entering the gateway
That's not really relevant to the complaint in this thread. A cannons build can do that. An A2B build can do that. So you've no need to worry about those probes. We got this homey!
That's like asking the champion of a strongman competition to lift a bag of marshmallows off the ground. Killing 2-3 borg probes on KASE can be done without cannons and without aux2bat, and you don't even break a sweat.
You don't even need 5k DPS to do that.
So it's going to be one of those threads............
Ahem *Starts Bubblegum pop music*
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/beating-a-dead-horse-call-me-maybe.jpg
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I do think that this game is in dire need of some actual balancing though. It would be nice to not have so much emphasis on killing things as fast as possible, or having the NPC's overpowered just to simulate challenge or fun. I honestly would love to have a fun ten minute battle than just blow through everything on easy mode.
You could try the Star Trek Battles sub-group (I think that's the proper term for them). They don't care about high DPS, just people having fun in a canon-like Star Trek fashion. I'm not part of them, but I think the idea has merit.
If the content in STO is easy (it is), and if blowing through groups of enemies in a few seconds with an overpowered cheese build is not your cup of tea, you might like them. Think they care more about the quality of the battles they're in rather than how fast they can get through the battle and what their DPS parsers say afterwards.
to OP, just running A2bX3 techs and FAW will not bank you uber deeps automatically it still requires a lot of gear to pull off "well". Is it cheap? Not at all, seeing that to do it effectively it really helps to have a good crit chance/ Dem 3 capability/ FAW 3 capability over weapon max + a leech console and power conservation (Cruiser command) not to mention all the spiffy rep feats and gear...Now DHC on the other hand I can easily grab some X3 CrtD ones and run rapidfire 3 and easily burst things down in any elite, doesnt really "require" any doffs, cannons are a LOT cheaper then arrays, and itll actually kill single targets a lot faster then even a good FAW player.
TL;DR Cannons are the new cheap way of being useful dps wise in pve content
So what abilities should the Escorts/Raptors have since they will be almost fully underpowered in S9 to most classes of ships, tell u the truth i think they're ones that should have the ''Long Range Sensor Masking'' passive ability which is on the Hirogen lock box ships, which i think fit perfectly on those ships since they're small and in the TV series have low power compared to highly energy powered Cruisers and Sci Ships. but do i think that escorts gonna get it besides Hirogen ships... No i doubt it since it was made virtually for those Hirogen lock box ships.
I don't think that Escorts/Raptors needs a offensive bonus since they're the best in that area, but they do need some sort of passive or activated toggle abilities focusing on survival which they already broke down on that area while alot of Cruisers (especially the newer/revamp ones) not only dominating in defense but taking over the offense away from escorts.
but i'll expect as more and more seasons past the game will be more unbalanced...
tell that to scimitar faw premades
u've notice that too
srsly
L2P
Canons are fine, yes FAW is borked but not any more borked than it has been over the last 18 months. Yeah so you got zorched by a BOL join the club, what til you get zorched by a TS3 or THY3. Will you be complaining about how energy weapons suck and kinetic is where it is at.
Put them all out of their misery by doing to A2B what you did to Season-1 Viral Matrix and Reverse Shield Polarity.
Then it will be yet another useless ability that no one will use nor complain about
with that in mind i agree with the op. ten minutes in kerrat and i will successfully defend myself against defiants, tvaros, alpha bo, dhc pressure, and so on. but come near some farmer spamming dem/a2b/faw and i will suffer huge bleedthrough, take massive hull damage, and he may not even be aware i even exist. if i make the mistake of trying to target him he will simply fly n circles endlessly spamming faw and heals, soaking the huge amount of damage 5 locaters and elachi dhc can bring to bear.
i know full well this post merits another witty post that amounts to nothing more than 'l2p', but i think something is seriously wrong with the current meta. unfortunately, i dont have much faith that things will change any time soon. universal spam, faw, overblown heals, they all cater to crypics favourite segment of the playerbase...
free jkname
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I do agree A2B is broken. It's basically taking advantage of dodgy design decisions in order for certain ships to perform in ways they were not originally designed too. But you can't blame a player for taking advantage of the mechanics they have to work with.
So I never touch it, but that is personal preference.
Those that say don't worry about it are right. The PvE is just so easy you can just have fun experimenting with all sorts of weird and wonderful builds - their's a thread in the builds sub forum from a player who uses a DHC and a DBB on an Atrox, you can get away with anything.
Keep in mind that before the ability to pre-emptively 'overcap' Weapons power, beams were only performing at slightly around at most 50% of their capability, due to the messed up way their output is calculated.
Cannons of all kind calculate the whole magnitude of the firing cycle right when their cycle begins (that means a salvo of 100 CSV/CRF bolts, on a 'pre-spacebared' cloaked ship, fires sychronized at max power).
Beams calculate their damage 3x per cycle, for each 'pulse', so 2/3 of the firing cycle is done when the weapon energy is 'drained'.
Also, Weapon Power 'drain' is no drain anymore, it is a debuff that is removed once the weapon ends the firing cycle. Originally, it was a drain, but even 1 EPS Console buffed weapon power recharge on escorts so high that they could neglect it (due to the long cooldown between volleys). Then, the rate got changed, resulting in people firing themselves dry in 3 salvoes even with maxed out EPS related skills, Engineering Consoles, and being an Engineer Captain.
And in the end, most of the nerf got undone, but at the same time, the current state was put in place for weapon drain. Surprise: Thus, the age of Tacscorts online began. Since a beamboat did fire 2/3 of the cycle on each beam at a forcibly diminished Weapon power setting (and even maxed out EPS could not bring the Weapon power up fast enough), while a cannonboat did have the benefit of 'Attack runs' to turn away after the volleys, while the weapon power recharged/weapons cycled and thus restored the energy.
Since LoR and Warp Cores, the 'everything over 125 in a Power setting is lost' barrier fell, thus overcapping works. And on a Cruiser, you can pull this off even without a boatload of '50 million per single one' Doffs, if you do not use the messed up and gamebreaking Doff system to stack cheese.
edit: Btw, this thread is...er...I'm asleep, so I couldn't even tell you how many months too late...lol. It's like saying, "Hey, did you see that Leno took over the Tonight Show?"
which doff is that? technician?
Ain't Nobody Got Time for That
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Excuse me, but one of the most powerful ships on the show? In case you are referring to the Bugship, did you watch the show?
It is one of the most powerful ships IN THE GAME, yes. But it was nothing to be reckoned with on the show. The Jem'Hadar Attack Ships are cannon fodder, made dangerous by their fanatic crews and willingness to perform kamikaze attacks. Those ships are the equivalent of a B'Rel Bird of Prey or a Defiant frigate, in the show it didn't even have cannons (which are a rarity in Star Trek anyways since cannons ARE far inferior to particle beam weapons, especially Starfleet beam arrays). If you refer once again to the USS Odyssey incident when they introduced the Dominion as dangerous, treknobabble background for that scene is that they used alien weaponry which Starfleet shields couldn't deflect and since the founders had already infiltrated Starfleet they knew the phaser "frequency" of their adversary and conmfigured their shield in a way that Starfleet weapons were basically useless during that encounter. The Jem'Hadar Attack Ship is by any means not a powerful ship in-canon.
Of course, for min/maxing "competition" that's a moot point. It's not even important what the game is all about, it's about pushing numbers higher and feeling 1337
EDIT: Also, I do remember that a developer on tribble once said on the forums that they are aware of the FAW thing and, actually, FAW is not working as intented right now. Nothing more, though, other than that there will be changes for that ability in the (far) future. Until then: Just stick to your build and have fun or hop on the train if you want to keep your big e-peen. Since you are basically complaining that your build doesn't score top dps anymore sinc ethe mechanics have changed. You certainly wouldn't complain if we were back to "escorts online" since you'd have the best scores. In general, like others said, STO is not balanced and never will be. There's always "the best", most of the time the current selling point and that will change from time to time.
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