In a relatively recent post entitled "Borg Set Nerf" the very "canon" existance of the so-called "Healer Ship" in STO was called into question. One of the main complaints was that the borg set created a "self-healer ship", thus rendering the "heal" (I prefer the term "engineering") ship irrelevant Please read that post if you find that issue interesting. I did.
In any case, instances of "ship healing" roughly analgous to "engineering team and "extend shields" do exist in Star Trek. I call your attention to "healing/repair" instances in Episodes: "Nightingale" (Voyager TV series); "Time scape" (TNG); "Unexpected" (Enterprise TV series) and even an "extend shileds" instance in "Equinox" (Voyager). These are just a few that pop immediately to mind. I'm sure there are others. The so-called "healer/repair" BOFF skills in STO are therefore "legitimate".
Being an engineer captain "healer boat" (I'm not really all that comfortable with that terminological over-simplification) is THE MOST challenging ship to pull off in STO because escorts and BOPs are difficult to help "repair" because they generally move too fast in and out of range and/or "battle cloak" or often blow up so quickly that engineering repair skills are difficult to utilize to their best effect (although I have had better luck in CE than in PVP) and cruisers, carriers and sci ships do reasonably well keeping themselves together on their own.
PVP was also "slammed" a bit. This is unfortunate because pvp is the absolute cricible for what works and doesn't work in STO (and most other MMO's). A good pvp ship will do well in pve but the reverse is not always or even generally true. I don't play as much pvp as I would like because most of my equipment is not quite as good as I would like and nothing is more embarrasing than an engineering ship that explodes all the time but my goal in pvp is to become admired, respected and indispensible, not necessarily to do the most DPS, although I do enjoy being a "finisher" of damaged enemy ships and a mine and "carrier-fighter-spam" clearer whenever I can.
I'm certainly not as skilled as I would like to be and hopefully one day will be but maybe what these DPS junkie "heal boat" detractors are really saying is not necessarily that the "healer boat" isn't realistic or necessary but that THEY just can't play one effectively.
A good pvp ship will do well in pve but the reverse is not always or even generally true.
I'd just like to say that PvP builds doing well in PvE is not always correct either. There are many PvP science-based builds that are pretty awful for PvE. It's often (though again, not always) true of DPS-role ships, however.
No pvp is not what determines what works in a game, the only thing you can determine in pvp is what works in pvp...
The only time that statement can be even remotely true is maybe in a fps...But when you have a game thats basically 98% pve/ 2% pvp I would much rather they spend time seeing what works in pve, then checking to see if it breaks pvp instead of vice versa...
Another note, healer ships are usually considered "sci" not engineer, engineers are considered tanks in all aspect, also they arnt the hardest ship to pull off unless youre pugging it, and dont realize its only really useful in certain situations.
In a relatively recent post entitled "Borg Set Nerf" the very "canon" existance of the so-called "Healer Ship" in STO was called into question. One of the main complaints was that the borg set created a "self-healer ship", thus rendering the "heal" (I prefer the term "engineering") ship irrelevant Please read that post if you find that issue interesting. I did.
In any case, instances of "ship healing" roughly analgous to "engineering team and "extend shields" do exist in Star Trek. I call your attention to "healing/repair" instances in Episodes: "Nightingale" (Voyager TV series); "Time scape" (TNG); "Unexpected" (Enterprise TV series) and even an "extend shileds" instance in "Equinox" (Voyager). These are just a few that pop immediately to mind. I'm sure there are others. The so-called "healer/repair" BOFF skills in STO are therefore "legitimate".
Being an engineer captain "healer boat" (I'm not really all that comfortable with that terminological over-simplification) is THE MOST challenging ship to pull off in STO because escorts and BOPs are difficult to help "repair" because they generally move too fast in and out of range and/or "battle cloak" or often blow up so quickly that engineering repair skills are difficult to utilize to their best effect (although I have had better luck in CE than in PVP) and cruisers, carriers and sci ships do reasonably well keeping themselves together on their own.
PVP was also "slammed" a bit. This is unfortunate because pvp is the absolute cricible for what works and doesn't work in STO (and most other MMO's). A good pvp ship will do well in pve but the reverse is not always or even generally true. I don't play as much pvp as I would like because most of my equipment is not quite as good as I would like and nothing is more embarrasing than an engineering ship that explodes all the time but my goal in pvp is to become admired, respected and indispensible, not necessarily to do the most DPS, although I do enjoy being a "finisher" of damaged enemy ships and a mine and "carrier-fighter-spam" clearer whenever I can.
I'm certainly not as skilled as I would like to be and hopefully one day will be but maybe what these DPS junkie "heal boat" detractors are really saying is not necessarily that the "healer boat" isn't realistic or necessary but that THEY just can't play one effectively.
What say ye "Escortius" King of the DPSians" ?
Man, if people are mad about the borg set NOW they should've been here before Cryptic went all "REPUTATION MADNESS" on everything.
Comments
I'd just like to say that PvP builds doing well in PvE is not always correct either. There are many PvP science-based builds that are pretty awful for PvE. It's often (though again, not always) true of DPS-role ships, however.
The only time that statement can be even remotely true is maybe in a fps...But when you have a game thats basically 98% pve/ 2% pvp I would much rather they spend time seeing what works in pve, then checking to see if it breaks pvp instead of vice versa...
Another note, healer ships are usually considered "sci" not engineer, engineers are considered tanks in all aspect, also they arnt the hardest ship to pull off unless youre pugging it, and dont realize its only really useful in certain situations.
Man, if people are mad about the borg set NOW they should've been here before Cryptic went all "REPUTATION MADNESS" on everything.
You could hull tank in pretty much anything.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]