c) Spheres now seem much harder to kill than Cubes. Every time we enter a queue, the Cube goes down relatively quickly, then the mission grinds to a halt while we laboriously try to vape a cloud of Spheres that each seem to go down much more slowly than the Cube.
I've found that spheres have always been harder/taken longer to kill than cubes. If the gap is even wider now, that's just ridiculous.
For some strange reason, a lot of NPC "battleships" are inferior to NPC "cruisers".
a) Players had so heavily out-geared the old Elite queues that we stopped needing strategy to win - we didn't have to use the 10% rule because our ships were such instakill buttons, we could just vape the entire screen anyway. The fact that we might have to use strategy now is a good thing.
I know I'm a contrarian but I don't think I agree with this and I think it's problem RPGs have had, design-wise, for decades. But it works for tabletop better.
Classical RPG strategy:
We want the gold. We kill or trick the dragon to get the gold. Getting the team to work together is how we kill or trick the dragon. Strategy is the key and overcoming personal differences and effective planning is how we do that.
This plays well to the strengths of a tabletop because it forces conflict between players and allows for creative solutions in a tabletop environment. The conflict is ultimately centered on the group. Resolving intra-group conflict paired with effective planning (which encourages outside the box thinking) is the key to killing the dragon and getting the loot.
This doesn't work well with online RPGs. Even a very robust game engine has few solutions and a combat sim even moreso. We can't trick our enemies. We also don't know our teammates that well, not even necessarily in raiding or fairly hardcore play scenarios. So there is no intrinsic reward for resolving conflict with them.
It makes no sense to me that automated, online RPGs have copied this paradigm which places the burden on group forming. It makes no more sense than playing D&D with strangers.
A better model might be:
We want the gold. We join the group to get the gold. Killing the dragon is how we maintain the group. Killing is the key to getting into the group.
There are other ways to formulate it, I guess. But it seems to be a weak choice to make the pressure point of online RPG gameplay group organization and management. It's not the strength of the online format.
And I think PuGs are the purest form of online play. If you're just playing with friends, why bother playing an MMO? So a good MMO is one that makes playing with strangers unfrustrating and which focuses challenges on areas other than team building. The ability to play with strangers is a core competency of the MMO and therefore should not become a pressure point, I'd think.
The problem is that the 'Advanced' level was SUPPOSED to be what WAS (pre-expansion) Elite.
Therefore, numerous players have strolled into an 'Advanced' instance to find that the enemy now has insane HP, take ages to kill and, to add insult to inury, are working against a clock.
I'll admit - I'm a mediocre player; but pre-expansion I could take my Sci character and my Fleet Rhode Island or Vesta into what WAS known as ISE and hold my own; I could, for example, drop GWIII on top of the spheres to slow their progress and then fire a HYIII Gravimetric torpedo to hamper them even more. And in the space of one patch, I've gone from being useful to being a liability. Yes, I can still throw GWIII around - and it'll still slow the NPC ships down - but then what? Can't kill those ships anymore because of their stupidly high HP and the main advantage of using GW in said manner was making a ship explode to cause damage to the ships surrounding it. And being a Sci character in a Sci ship, DPS isn't my thing.
So I'm relegated to playing PvE content on normal, based on my skill level and build. I'm no use in Advanced and I sincerely doubt that I'll EVER be able to play it on Elite when the time comes, which is a little demoralising frankly.
you have the right idea. fixed it in one spot for you though.
In your case here Reyan, as you mentioned, sci's aren't intended to be DPS machines. You say you are no use in advanced, but I'd argue that you can be more useful now in advanced than you were in the old elites. You might just need to figure out what debuffs would be more useful to help the tacs do more damage, vs trying to do the damage yourself - or perhaps a healboat, to keep the DPS'ers alive (I fly one in PVP often). Or, you could just play on normal, like you say. no prob with that, that's why it's there. those who can't do advanced will play normal, and those who can't do elite will do advanced. that's the whole point of having various difficulty levels.
also, a general question to anyone...where was it stated that advanced was going to be the old elite? I didn't read Cryptic saying this anywhere, but I could be wrong - anyone have a link?
What you used to refer to as Elite in our queued events and STFs is now known as Advanced. In the new Advanced versions of the queues you will see a similar level of challenge in the enemies that you are used to when the queues were labeled Elite.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
you have the right idea. fixed it in one spot for you though.
In your case here Reyan, as you mentioned, sci's aren't intended to be DPS machines. You say you are no use in advanced, but I'd argue that you can be more useful now in advanced than you were in the old elites. You might just need to figure out what debuffs would be more useful to help the tacs do more damage, vs trying to do the damage yourself - or perhaps a healboat, to keep the DPS'ers alive (I fly one in PVP often). Or, you could just play on normal, like you say. no prob with that, that's why it's there. those who can't do advanced will play normal, and those who can't do elite will do advanced. that's the whole point of having various difficulty levels.
also, a general question to anyone...where was it stated that advanced was going to be the old elite? I didn't read Cryptic saying this anywhere, but I could be wrong - anyone have a link?
In the new Advanced versions of the queues you will see a similar level of challenge in the enemies that you are used to when the queues were labeled Elite.
So exact now, but lets be honest, this isn't similiar at all. Sure they were buffed up to level 60, but there were buffed up alot more at 60 then we were at 60 even with MK XIV gear and T6 ships with level 5 and 10 specilization points.
What you used to refer to as Elite in our queued events and STFs is now known as Advanced. In the new Advanced versions of the queues you will see a similar level of challenge in the enemies that you are used to when the queues were labeled Elite.
ok sure, but you didn't post the part where it outlined that there are differences. Thanks for the link though, I find the new way they've been doing the news to be quite annoying, so I haven't been reading it as much
ok sure, but you didn't post the part where it outlined that there are differences. Thanks for the link though, I find the new way they've been doing the news to be quite annoying, so I haven't been reading it as much
Well here's the thing. Similiar challenge means... similiar challenge. Meaning that if you could beat Advanced before you should have a smiliar chance to beat it now.
Which isn't happening, which is blatently obvious that you're in the minority compared to the majority of people posting in this post about it. The Majority of people could beat advanced before, now only the top 10% can.
Which I'm fine with but that was what Elite was designed for, the top 10%.
So it's not similiar it's totally different, which is not similiar.
So exact now, but lets be honest, this isn't similiar at all. Sure they were buffed up to level 60, but there were buffed up alot more at 60 then we were at 60 even with MK XIV gear and T6 ships with level 5 and 10 specilization points.
I found it to be similar. the enemies had no new skills, and no new tactics - they added a few more spheres and gave everything more shields and hull. I've only pugged ISA so far (I usually run with fleeties), with a level 50 in a non upgraded fleet dhelan and while it took much longer and I actually died a couple times, we beat it without any real struggle.
You are saying you ran it with a premade team of fully levelled toons with fully levelled gear on fully levelled t6 ships and failed?
edit: granted my fleet dhelan is set up for NWS and excels in crowd control, so the cubes stayed together in nice clumps and weren't much of a problem for us to take out
I found it to be similar. the enemies had no new skills, and no new tactics - they added a few more spheres and gave everything more shields and hull. I've only pugged ISA so far (I usually run with fleeties), with a level 50 in a non upgraded fleet dhelan and while it took much longer and I actually died a couple times, we beat it without any real struggle.
You are saying you ran it with a premade team of fully levelled toons with fully levelled gear on fully levelled t6 ships and failed?
I didn't say pre-made.
The issue was that you got a lucky pug. In my pug we had two people that were obviously undergeared for it.
And there's the issue. Similiar was you could walk into an Advanced and have a 75% chance of succeeding with a pretty good chance of doing the optionals. Pre-mades I have no problem with. But with PUGs it all depends on your make up.
Add in the issues of Cryptic tending to return to the problem of 4 man teams in STFs and the usual leechers and griefers and it's no longer similiar.
I think we're running into an issue with Similiar. Add the optionals as mandatories, no problem. Even add the time limit, no problem. But as it was pointed out before, the HP progression isn't similiar... it's a ton more then what the DPS progression is on player ships.
T6 MKXIV ships DPs progression is not equal to the HP progression at level 60 on Advanced.
That's the issue with Similiarity. I should be able to take a similiar t6 ship, with a similiar BOff and console lay out, with simply mk XIV gear walk into a PUG and have a 75% chance of steamrolling it even with a PUG of undergeared ships, like yours.
That's not happening, pure and simple as obvious from this entire thread. It's not like I'm speaking alone here, it's even obvious to the devs that it's not similiar no matter how much you want it to be in your world, else they never would have even made this thread.
But here's the deal. Go ahead and leave advanced and elite as it is, I'm all for it. I have no issue with it.
My issue is with that they've gated bind on pickup BNPs/Secondary Marks behind advanced, meaning that there really is no way for your up and coming starter player or alt to ever really get the better Rep gear and get into advanced.
Someone mentioned that you need somewhere between 10k and 15k PER SHIP to do advanced now. Before the average ship ran somewhere around 5k, with average purple gear. That's not going to happen now if they can't get to the better rep gear.
So leave the difficulty, but add better rewards across the board, so that it's easier for your average player to get into advanced.
Here's how it should go.
Elites should be pre-made only with top end gear. Top rewards a lot better then what they're giving now. That's pretty much where it is now except the rewards suck.
Advanced you should be able to pug 75% of the time, which isn't happening now. You'll need decent gear but not top end gear, which also isn't happening now unless you get lucky in your pug with someone with a 40k ship carrying you. Also the rewards are horrible.
Normal should be your entry level using blue gear. That's pretty much happening now. Rewards suck.
Honestly they could leave the difficulty as it is, if there was a way to transfer marks to BNPs or get BNPs through the daily bonus, which isn't happening now.
The issue was that you got a lucky pug. In my pug we had two people that were obviously undergeared for it.
And there's the issue. Similiar was you could walk into an Advanced and have a 75% chance of succeeding with a pretty good chance of doing the optionals. Pre-mades I have no problem with. But with PUGs it all depends on your make up.
Add in the issues of Cryptic tending to return to the problem of 4 man teams in STFs and the usual leechers and griefers and it's no longer similiar.
I think we're running into an issue with Similiar. Add the optionals as mandatories, no problem. Even add the time limit, no problem. But as it was pointed out before, the HP progression isn't similiar... it's a ton more then what the DPS progression is on player ships.
T6 MKXIV ships DPs progression is not equal to the HP progression at level 60 on Advanced.
That's the issue with Similiarity. I should be able to take a similiar t6 ship, with a similiar BOff and console lay out, with simply mk XIV gear walk into a PUG and have a 75% chance of steamrolling it even with a PUG of undergeared ships, like yours.
That's not happening, pure and simple as obvious from this entire thread. It's not like I'm speaking alone here, it's even obvious to the devs that it's not similiar no matter how much you want it to be in your world, else they never would have even made this thread.
But here's the deal. Go ahead and leave advanced and elite as it is, I'm all for it. I have no issue with it.
My issue is with that they've gated bind on pickup BNPs/Secondary Marks behind advanced, meaning that there really is no way for your up and coming starter player or alt to ever really get the better Rep gear and get into advanced.
Someone mentioned that you need somewhere between 10k and 15k PER SHIP to do advanced now. Before the average ship ran somewhere around 5k, with average purple gear. That's not going to happen now if they can't get to the better rep gear.
So leave the difficulty, but add better rewards across the board, so that it's easier for your average player to get into advanced.
Here's how it should go.
Elites should be pre-made only with top end gear. Top rewards a lot better then what they're giving now. That's pretty much where it is now except the rewards suck.
Advanced you should be able to pug 75% of the time, which isn't happening now. You'll need decent gear but not top end gear, which also isn't happening now unless you get lucky in your pug with someone with a 40k ship carrying you. Also the rewards are horrible.
Normal should be your entry level using blue gear. That's pretty much happening now. Rewards suck.
Honestly they could leave the difficulty as it is, if there was a way to transfer marks to BNPs or get BNPs through the daily bonus, which isn't happening now.
No. There is no reason a tiny portion of players (perhaps myself included) need to have 66% of the queues. It's not right.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: "We think we've come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches, it's all ancient history. Then - before you can blink an eye - suddenly it threatens to start all over again."
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
In all seriousness though. complain about the rewards, fine, but not the difficulty. I can get on board with that. 480 for advanced is lame.
in a few weeks when more peoples gear is up to snuff it will be alot easier
I agree. Fix the rewards and the difficulty becomes mute. But still the thing stays... similiar it is not, it's totally different. The only similiarity is that it's on the same map.
Or you could play elite and leave advanced as it was. Also fixed and the majority of the players can still have fun and you can still have your elitist e-peen fix.
In all seriousness though. complain about the rewards, fine, but not the difficulty. I can get on board with that. 480 for advanced is lame.
in a few weeks when more peoples gear is up to snuff it will be alot easier
I find it funny that people think 10x HP mobs are "hard".
They aren't hard. They don't do anything different than they used to and they don't hit harder. They are simply more of an exercise in frustration and a way to scam rewards away from the playerbase.
Cryptic didn't have the balls to make them actually hard by upping their Damage and giving them more abilities.
No, all the new modes do is punish anyone who isn't flying in a DPS pwnsauce build; plain and simple.
Why did they do this? Because DPS builds are expensive. That's the bottom line.
I find it funny that people think 10x HP mobs are "hard".
They aren't hard. They don't do anything different than they used to and they don't hit harder. They are simply more of an exercise in frustration and a way to scam rewards away from the playerbase.
Cryptic didn't have the balls to make them actually hard by upping their Damage and giving them more abilities.
No, all the new modes do is punish anyone who isn't flying in a DPS pwnsauce build; plain and simple.
Why did they do this? Because DPS builds are expensive. That's the bottom line.
My team just ran CSN. The average player on our team contributed about 7400 DPS through the event. We finished the opt with 11 minutes left on the clock.
The same team can not complete CSA.
For a team to dominate one level so thorouoghly... not even using 30% of the allotted time, then to be unable to complete one level more of difficulty, is an unacceptable jump.
My team just ran CSN. The average player on our team contributed about 7400 DPS through the event. We finished the opt with 11 minutes left on the clock.
The same team can not complete CSA.
For a team to dominate one level so thorouoghly... not even using 30% of the allotted time, then to be unable to complete one level more of difficulty, is an unacceptable jump.
The bugginess is astonishing in some of the missions.
For example; from CSN to CSA, the shipyard spawns become stupidly resilient, yet the probes don't really change that much.
From ISN to ISA the Nanite Spheres and Spheres get close to 1 million HP EACH, and they each have more HP than a Cube. That also wastes a lot of time.
Or you could play elite and leave advanced as it was. Also fixed and the majority of the players can still have fun and you can still have your elitist e-peen fix.
perhaps I should have put <sarcasm></sarcasm> around that. thought you'd get it when I started the next post with "in all seriousnessness"
I don't have a parser, I mainly play with fleeties in kerrat (with a healboat -giant epeen!) or pestf these days, and I could care less what my dps is as long as my targets die somewhat quickly. that takes longer now because my gear has become outdated, but I see no rush to upgrade until I want to play elite - a long way off since I've become more a casual player.
I really think what they meant by advanced being similar to the old elite the comparison was based on lvl 60 char with fully decked out t6 ships. give it time and it will be the same. ISE used to have a 10% rule, remember?
perhaps I should have put <sarcasm></sarcasm> around that. thought you'd get it when I started the next post with "in all seriousnessness"
I don't have a parser, I mainly play with fleeties in kerrat (with a healboat -giant epeen!) or pestf these days, and I could care less what my dps is as long as my targets die somewhat quickly. that takes longer now because my gear has become outdated, but I see no rush to upgrade until I want to play elite - a long way off since I've become more a casual player.
I really think what they meant by advanced being similar to the old elite the comparison was based on lvl 60 char with fully decked out t6 ships. give it time and it will be the same. ISE used to have a 10% rule, remember?
Well, recently a group of 5 30k + DPS Scimitars from the DPS channel gave ISA a go, and it took them 8 minutes.
8 MINUTES
For team that is comprised of the best DPSers in the best DPS ships in STO to take that long on Advanced is appaling. They should be steamrolling ISA.
What chance in hell do you think PUGs have of doing anywhere near 30k DPS per person?
That's not including the fact that Advanced isn't supposed to be the "Exclusive" queue. Advanced is actually the "kind of required to get decent gear" queue.
You won't end up with a full team of DPS 30k Scimitars every time you queue, and there is no way you can even carry a low DPS team with a T6/MkIV ship.
perhaps I should have put <sarcasm></sarcasm> around that. thought you'd get it when I started the next post with "in all seriousnessness"
I don't have a parser, I mainly play with fleeties in kerrat (with a healboat -giant epeen!) or pestf these days, and I could care less what my dps is as long as my targets die somewhat quickly. that takes longer now because my gear has become outdated, but I see no rush to upgrade until I want to play elite - a long way off since I've become more a casual player.
I really think what they meant by advanced being similar to the old elite the comparison was based on lvl 60 char with fully decked out t6 ships. give it time and it will be the same. ISE used to have a 10% rule, remember?
Well, recently a group of 5 30k + DPS Scimitars from the DPS channel gave ISA a go, and it took them 8 minutes.
8 MINUTES
For team that is comprised of the best DPSers in the best DPS ships in STO to take that long on Advanced is appaling. They should be steamrolling ISA.
What chance in hell do you think PUGs have of doing anywhere near 30k DPS per person?
That's not including the fact that Advanced isn't supposed to be the "Exclusive" queue. Advanced is actually the "kind of required to get decent gear" queue.
You won't end up with a full team of DPS 30k Scimitars every time you queue, and there is no way you can even carry a low DPS team with a T6/MkIV ship.
look at that, someone just posted this in 10k
CombatLogReaderInfected Space[7:45] Dmg(DPS) 20,421,818(47,492) 12,315,266(28,977) 8,820,060(20,322) 8,502,686(20,053) 6,839,153(16,721)
names removed since I wasn't in that game, but that's not all scims, and thats not ALL level 60's with mk xiv gear and t6 ships, which is (aside from the scims) what the content is designed for.
also, despite being the king, the scim is not the be all end all of DPS and they aren't an "I win" button. There are other ships that do 40k+ in the right hands too
I'm wondering now though, if they originally intended to have them 70% of what they are now, but knew there would be a backlash to ANY increase in difficulty. Now they look like the heroes for going back and doubling* NPC HP vs tripling* it
*numbers obtained from somewhere between my stomach and my chair
look at that, someone just posted this in 10k
CombatLogReaderInfected Space[7:45] Dmg(DPS) 20,421,818(47,492) 12,315,266(28,977) 8,820,060(20,322) 8,502,686(20,053) 6,839,153(16,721)
names removed since I wasn't in that game, but that's not all scims, and thats not ALL level 60's with mk xiv gear and t6 ships, which is (aside from the scims) what the content is designed for.
also, despite being the king, the scim is not the be all end all of DPS and they aren't an "I win" button. There are other ships that do 40k+ in the right hands too
What is your point? You do know that the average player does severely less DPS then that right?
You can throw up exceptions to the rule all you want. It doesnt make it true for the majority of Players in this game.
Comments
I've found that spheres have always been harder/taken longer to kill than cubes. If the gap is even wider now, that's just ridiculous.
For some strange reason, a lot of NPC "battleships" are inferior to NPC "cruisers".
I know I'm a contrarian but I don't think I agree with this and I think it's problem RPGs have had, design-wise, for decades. But it works for tabletop better.
Classical RPG strategy:
We want the gold. We kill or trick the dragon to get the gold. Getting the team to work together is how we kill or trick the dragon. Strategy is the key and overcoming personal differences and effective planning is how we do that.
This plays well to the strengths of a tabletop because it forces conflict between players and allows for creative solutions in a tabletop environment. The conflict is ultimately centered on the group. Resolving intra-group conflict paired with effective planning (which encourages outside the box thinking) is the key to killing the dragon and getting the loot.
This doesn't work well with online RPGs. Even a very robust game engine has few solutions and a combat sim even moreso. We can't trick our enemies. We also don't know our teammates that well, not even necessarily in raiding or fairly hardcore play scenarios. So there is no intrinsic reward for resolving conflict with them.
It makes no sense to me that automated, online RPGs have copied this paradigm which places the burden on group forming. It makes no more sense than playing D&D with strangers.
A better model might be:
We want the gold. We join the group to get the gold. Killing the dragon is how we maintain the group. Killing is the key to getting into the group.
There are other ways to formulate it, I guess. But it seems to be a weak choice to make the pressure point of online RPG gameplay group organization and management. It's not the strength of the online format.
And I think PuGs are the purest form of online play. If you're just playing with friends, why bother playing an MMO? So a good MMO is one that makes playing with strangers unfrustrating and which focuses challenges on areas other than team building. The ability to play with strangers is a core competency of the MMO and therefore should not become a pressure point, I'd think.
you have the right idea. fixed it in one spot for you though.
In your case here Reyan, as you mentioned, sci's aren't intended to be DPS machines. You say you are no use in advanced, but I'd argue that you can be more useful now in advanced than you were in the old elites. You might just need to figure out what debuffs would be more useful to help the tacs do more damage, vs trying to do the damage yourself - or perhaps a healboat, to keep the DPS'ers alive (I fly one in PVP often). Or, you could just play on normal, like you say. no prob with that, that's why it's there. those who can't do advanced will play normal, and those who can't do elite will do advanced. that's the whole point of having various difficulty levels.
also, a general question to anyone...where was it stated that advanced was going to be the old elite? I didn't read Cryptic saying this anywhere, but I could be wrong - anyone have a link?
What you used to refer to as Elite in our queued events and STFs is now known as Advanced. In the new Advanced versions of the queues you will see a similar level of challenge in the enemies that you are used to when the queues were labeled Elite.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/star-trek-online/news/detail/7006643
To break out exactly what it says
So exact now, but lets be honest, this isn't similiar at all. Sure they were buffed up to level 60, but there were buffed up alot more at 60 then we were at 60 even with MK XIV gear and T6 ships with level 5 and 10 specilization points.
ok sure, but you didn't post the part where it outlined that there are differences. Thanks for the link though, I find the new way they've been doing the news to be quite annoying, so I haven't been reading it as much
Well here's the thing. Similiar challenge means... similiar challenge. Meaning that if you could beat Advanced before you should have a smiliar chance to beat it now.
Which isn't happening, which is blatently obvious that you're in the minority compared to the majority of people posting in this post about it. The Majority of people could beat advanced before, now only the top 10% can.
Which I'm fine with but that was what Elite was designed for, the top 10%.
So it's not similiar it's totally different, which is not similiar.
I found it to be similar. the enemies had no new skills, and no new tactics - they added a few more spheres and gave everything more shields and hull. I've only pugged ISA so far (I usually run with fleeties), with a level 50 in a non upgraded fleet dhelan and while it took much longer and I actually died a couple times, we beat it without any real struggle.
You are saying you ran it with a premade team of fully levelled toons with fully levelled gear on fully levelled t6 ships and failed?
edit: granted my fleet dhelan is set up for NWS and excels in crowd control, so the cubes stayed together in nice clumps and weren't much of a problem for us to take out
I didn't say pre-made.
The issue was that you got a lucky pug. In my pug we had two people that were obviously undergeared for it.
And there's the issue. Similiar was you could walk into an Advanced and have a 75% chance of succeeding with a pretty good chance of doing the optionals. Pre-mades I have no problem with. But with PUGs it all depends on your make up.
Add in the issues of Cryptic tending to return to the problem of 4 man teams in STFs and the usual leechers and griefers and it's no longer similiar.
I think we're running into an issue with Similiar. Add the optionals as mandatories, no problem. Even add the time limit, no problem. But as it was pointed out before, the HP progression isn't similiar... it's a ton more then what the DPS progression is on player ships.
T6 MKXIV ships DPs progression is not equal to the HP progression at level 60 on Advanced.
That's the issue with Similiarity. I should be able to take a similiar t6 ship, with a similiar BOff and console lay out, with simply mk XIV gear walk into a PUG and have a 75% chance of steamrolling it even with a PUG of undergeared ships, like yours.
That's not happening, pure and simple as obvious from this entire thread. It's not like I'm speaking alone here, it's even obvious to the devs that it's not similiar no matter how much you want it to be in your world, else they never would have even made this thread.
But here's the deal. Go ahead and leave advanced and elite as it is, I'm all for it. I have no issue with it.
My issue is with that they've gated bind on pickup BNPs/Secondary Marks behind advanced, meaning that there really is no way for your up and coming starter player or alt to ever really get the better Rep gear and get into advanced.
Someone mentioned that you need somewhere between 10k and 15k PER SHIP to do advanced now. Before the average ship ran somewhere around 5k, with average purple gear. That's not going to happen now if they can't get to the better rep gear.
So leave the difficulty, but add better rewards across the board, so that it's easier for your average player to get into advanced.
Here's how it should go.
Elites should be pre-made only with top end gear. Top rewards a lot better then what they're giving now. That's pretty much where it is now except the rewards suck.
Advanced you should be able to pug 75% of the time, which isn't happening now. You'll need decent gear but not top end gear, which also isn't happening now unless you get lucky in your pug with someone with a 40k ship carrying you. Also the rewards are horrible.
Normal should be your entry level using blue gear. That's pretty much happening now. Rewards suck.
Honestly they could leave the difficulty as it is, if there was a way to transfer marks to BNPs or get BNPs through the daily bonus, which isn't happening now.
Play normal mode. fixed
in a few weeks when more peoples gear is up to snuff it will be alot easier
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
I agree. Fix the rewards and the difficulty becomes mute. But still the thing stays... similiar it is not, it's totally different. The only similiarity is that it's on the same map.
Or you could play elite and leave advanced as it was. Also fixed and the majority of the players can still have fun and you can still have your elitist e-peen fix.
I find it funny that people think 10x HP mobs are "hard".
They aren't hard. They don't do anything different than they used to and they don't hit harder. They are simply more of an exercise in frustration and a way to scam rewards away from the playerbase.
Cryptic didn't have the balls to make them actually hard by upping their Damage and giving them more abilities.
No, all the new modes do is punish anyone who isn't flying in a DPS pwnsauce build; plain and simple.
Why did they do this? Because DPS builds are expensive. That's the bottom line.
This... this I agree with actually.
Actually, I did a little bit of research: the 960 is still there, but they hid half of the totals in the Optionals.
I don't know if the Elite has optionals, but if they do, that means completing an STF with an optional would net you 480, 960 and 1920 dil
Post by Borticus.
My team just ran CSN. The average player on our team contributed about 7400 DPS through the event. We finished the opt with 11 minutes left on the clock.
The same team can not complete CSA.
For a team to dominate one level so thorouoghly... not even using 30% of the allotted time, then to be unable to complete one level more of difficulty, is an unacceptable jump.
The bugginess is astonishing in some of the missions.
For example; from CSN to CSA, the shipyard spawns become stupidly resilient, yet the probes don't really change that much.
From ISN to ISA the Nanite Spheres and Spheres get close to 1 million HP EACH, and they each have more HP than a Cube. That also wastes a lot of time.
perhaps I should have put <sarcasm></sarcasm> around that. thought you'd get it when I started the next post with "in all seriousnessness"
I don't have a parser, I mainly play with fleeties in kerrat (with a healboat -giant epeen!) or pestf these days, and I could care less what my dps is as long as my targets die somewhat quickly. that takes longer now because my gear has become outdated, but I see no rush to upgrade until I want to play elite - a long way off since I've become more a casual player.
I really think what they meant by advanced being similar to the old elite the comparison was based on lvl 60 char with fully decked out t6 ships. give it time and it will be the same. ISE used to have a 10% rule, remember?
Well, recently a group of 5 30k + DPS Scimitars from the DPS channel gave ISA a go, and it took them 8 minutes.
8 MINUTES
For team that is comprised of the best DPSers in the best DPS ships in STO to take that long on Advanced is appaling. They should be steamrolling ISA.
What chance in hell do you think PUGs have of doing anywhere near 30k DPS per person?
That's not including the fact that Advanced isn't supposed to be the "Exclusive" queue. Advanced is actually the "kind of required to get decent gear" queue.
You won't end up with a full team of DPS 30k Scimitars every time you queue, and there is no way you can even carry a low DPS team with a T6/MkIV ship.
My apologies then
look at that, someone just posted this in 10k
CombatLogReaderInfected Space[7:45] Dmg(DPS) 20,421,818(47,492) 12,315,266(28,977) 8,820,060(20,322) 8,502,686(20,053) 6,839,153(16,721)
names removed since I wasn't in that game, but that's not all scims, and thats not ALL level 60's with mk xiv gear and t6 ships, which is (aside from the scims) what the content is designed for.
also, despite being the king, the scim is not the be all end all of DPS and they aren't an "I win" button. There are other ships that do 40k+ in the right hands too
little confused, does that mean he is reducing the NPC's hit point values by 30% in advanced stf's?
no prob!
I'm wondering now though, if they originally intended to have them 70% of what they are now, but knew there would be a backlash to ANY increase in difficulty. Now they look like the heroes for going back and doubling* NPC HP vs tripling* it
*numbers obtained from somewhere between my stomach and my chair
What is your point? You do know that the average player does severely less DPS then that right?
You can throw up exceptions to the rule all you want. It doesnt make it true for the majority of Players in this game.
Equally if not more important