I got all excited when DR landed, upgraded my ships, upgraded my cannons and.... well just felt meh.
So I upgraded my scimitar and, upgraded my beams an just laughed, FAW and never looked back ( thanks cryptic ).
I disagree that they should nerf FAW, but rather boost Cannon and Torpedo potency, as well as Science potency. To be fair though, beam weapons have long defined Star Trek, and to nerf those now flies completely in the face of what makes Star Trek, Star Trek (cannons were never as iconic save for the Defiant's set). They already nerfed Torpedoes, the other iconic weapons that have defined Star Trek to oblivion. Already, most have abandoned Torpedoes entirely since DR went live.
As far as Beams vs Cannons, the damage loss at range that cannons suffer compared to beams keeps the balance, since beams do less damage per shot on average than a cannon shot (and if we talk psudo-science, a beam is continuous energy keeping it powered vs the short bursts of energy that makes up a cannon shot).
FAW is easy because there's no real damage loss for Beam weapons at maximum range compared to Cannons, which have notable damage loss at maximum range. This wouldn't have been as big a problem for cannons if players could equip at least regular single cannons on the rear and have a Cannon Fire at Will ability instead of Cannon Spread, with the same basic advantages FAW abilities have. Cannons would still have inferior max range damage, but at least now they can multi-target without needing a Gwell to cluster their enemies.
Additionally, to make Dual Cannons useful, they could at least offer them a wider firing angle compared to Dual Heavy Cannons, to further complement a theoretical C:FAW ability. The majority of damage would still be concentrated forwards (as it should given that's the advantage of Cannons), but at least they can deal more overall DPS to grouped opponents.
On the torpedo (and by extension, mines) side of things, Cryptic could at least do away with the excessive and unnecessary resistances to torpedo damage they've implemented with DR, as well as remove global cooldowns on them entirely. They weren't the 1HKO weapons that they are in the TV and movie series, but pre-DR, at least they worked well to complement damage dealing from cannons and beams with their own unique capabilities. As well, NPCs were still tough enough to handle multiple torpedoes at once due to their shield resistances.
The Sci side of things also could use a boost; namely, make their debuffs and holds more effective. Sci ships already trade DPS for heavy science; the least they could do is be capable of stripping away enough buffs or boosts to allow their own weapons to deal enough damage to offset the lack of Tactical Consoles and abilities.
BFAW never worked as it should in my opinion. It's bsaically meant to be a point defense for cruisers and a way to generate aggro and focus fire on itself while other ships attack the occupied mobs. BFAW increasing damage, even on a single target, makes really no sense to begin with.
In general it makes little sense that any kind of AoE damage is *increasing* damage output. It's the same with TS versus HY. TS never misses and causes more damage - it is a spread for targ's sae. It's by it's very definition an unfocused attack - how can it "not miss" and do more damage than direct hits?
I don't think I'd go that far. The larger issue is probably overpopulated combat encounters.
AoE DPS should outdamage single target in heavily AoE situations.
Honestly despite playing games and even RPGs most of my life, I keep looking back to WoW (which wasn't even my first MMO) and the education I got there running all three warrior specs through several major phases of class balance. There's a LOT to learn from the old warrior community there in terms of what Blizzard did right and wrong just with warriors because you get a really focused look at everything in an MMO aside from Crowd Control and healing.
AoE and single target work best as situational tools.
I'm generally someone who heaps praise on content and grumbles at systems decisions but I think a lot of the balance issues in STO may be less with powers and more with content and encounter design.
We fight multiple enemies at a time too much for the powers we have. This is true for Fleet Support, in which Fleet Support can mean having a powerful ally for 10 minutes (something I suspect is more power than was intended). It's true for BFAW's overpowedness. It ties into why leveling is so tedious and frustrating whenever the difficulty ramps up. It features into the genocidal captain complaints from loreheads.
If spammy fights were rare, BFAW would be fine. If BFAW were nerfed, it would be underpowered if used randomly or in the wrong situations which penalizes unskilled and uneducated players more than the skilled players.
The problem is that there's too much NPC spam and too much reliance on it to create content. Reduce the spam hordes and BFAW will cease to be overpowered.
The problem is that there's too much NPC spam and too much reliance on it to create content. Reduce the spam hordes and BFAW will cease to be overpowered.
And higher enemy HP will be welcome because these fights will feel like 1-on-1 encounters between similarly capable ships. Goes back to my thoughts that a single borg cube should feel like a boss fight. The tactical cube in ISA is almost close to what I'd like to see the normal borg cubes be, but it attacks too slowly. (Hive, on the other hand...)
Didn't they say that one of the reasons they beefed up NPC hulls and shields was to help prioritize single target damage over aoe damage in PVE? So much for that I guess lol.
The majority of the player base claims enemy are too tough, cant dps them down fast enough.
The majority of the player base slots one of the softest hitting weapons in the game on their ships (beam arrays).
I see a correlation there.
Anyone think a cannon vaper is not killing the new targets fast enough? I am behind the curve, but I have not met anything that survived very long to a rapid fire, and I am not even a ultra dpser, just a casual player. The only thing that has really been troublesome so far are those blue X balls the vard drop, and evasive or rock&roll counters that cleanly (or moving fast, if you have built up your ship for high speed). Those were dangerous to me at first, resulting in a couple of blow ups, but live, learn, and adapt
FAW = 125% damage on 3 targets...
CSV = 125% damage on 3 targets...
This is the problem.
It should NOT gain damage, it should loose damage to hit many targets...
Should be
FAW = 75% damage on 3 targets
CSV = 75% damage on 3 targets.
The fact that we have a choice... target 1 hard, or target 3 hard too... Its dumb...
If you add more targets the damage per target should go down.. but it doesn't it goes up a lot. FAW should be to gain agro.. NOT to kill everything.
CSV is the same thing, but worse because CRF is 150% damage on 1 target. CSV is 125 on 3... meaning 375% damage output... That is just dumb. At least beam overload crits and does a massive spike damage. CRF is just a faster shot.
I run a defiant 1 target ship. I get 9-12k dps with this but can do 20-25 with CSV. What one is more fun to fly? What one is stronger?
FAW = 125% damage on 3 targets...
CSV = 125% damage on 3 targets...
This is the problem.
It should NOT gain damage, it should loose damage to hit many targets...
Should be
FAW = 75% damage on 3 targets
CSV = 75% damage on 3 targets.
The fact that we have a choice... target 1 hard, or target 3 hard too... Its dumb...
If you add more targets the damage per target should go down.. but it doesn't it goes up a lot. FAW should be to gain agro.. NOT to kill everything.
CSV is the same thing, but worse because CRF is 150% damage on 1 target. CSV is 125 on 3... meaning 375% damage output... That is just dumb. At least beam overload crits and does a massive spike damage. CRF is just a faster shot.
I run a defiant 1 target ship. I get 9-12k dps with this but can do 20-25 with CSV. What one is more fun to fly? What one is stronger?
Except that prioritizes using it when it's intended to be used only. It penalizes stupidity.
As it stands, intelligent play is overpowered in STO and unintelligent "dumb" play is underpowered.
There is a real problem when a skilled player can do 3, 5, 10 times the DPS of a button masher.
It's too much advantage and creates content gaps that no difficulty level gap will solve.
Skilled play should have maybe a 20% edge over button mashing.
Making an ability something that could cost a player damage widens the gap between skilled and unskilled players.
say what ? After all their magic making mines less of the specialized weapon they were, and into the mainstream to force a retirement of torpedo's ?
Ya, I won't use them either- another 'no skill' weapon for noobs.
Well no skill maybe, but useless in PvP when there is a beam boat about. The only weapons mine related which are of any use are the cluster torps. You drop any mines in Pvp, and in a matter of femto seconds a beam boat would have blasted the lot of them.
The same with the heavy torps, handy in PvE, useless in PvP.
I say, keep the Fire at Will the same, but make mines and heavy torps untargetable to beams and cannons.
It should do
225% damage (3x75) 3 targets or more means more damage with proper use...
150% damgae (2x75) 2 targets means same damage output of single target users but 2 targets.
75% damage (1x75) 1 target... dont use BFAW or you loose dps.
This is the proper way 99% of games do AOE powers. AOE = lower single target dps, higher group dps.
Currently there IS NO reason to slot CRF besides liking it. It cant NOT get the same damage output. The only time CRF is better is boss targets with only 1. Any other time its better to take the 125% damage on 3 targets than 150% on 1.
I LOVE CRF because its canon. That is the only reason i use it. I play for fun, but know that swapping my CRF for CSV and i will gain 2-3x the dps because of how those two powers are set up.
I run both faw fits and alpha strike fits on advanced queues with out feeling underpowered either way. FAW is very effective but other fits work as well. Only people who are purely meter chasing (using meters all the time without proper benchmarking or situational awareness) really have room to complain.
Everybody, this man has the answer, lets retire every other weapon choice and all run Beam Boats. :cool:
I'm not sure even if BFAW is supreme that this is the solution.
I'm pretty happy with 3 beam/3cannon/1 torp.
Though maybe weapon diversification would be a sound decision from a design POV (that people would scream about since people seem to love pure weapon builds).
Personally, I think each weapon should get a unique additional mod that only improves weapons not of its type.
Faw is only part of the problem the real problem is how weapon overcapping works aka it works great for beams and does not work for dhc.
When i fire my dhc i lose 12 power for each one after the first
When i fire my beam array the first 5 don't even move my power bar below 125
Getting 30k dps on a dhc ship is amazing no matter what gear is used it takes alot of skill meanwhile 30k dps on a beam boat takes some skill but is mostly gear.
The highest dhc build i have seen is 35k dps meanwhile beams have broken 100k dps.
Dramatically increase the drain perhaps to correspond with the fact you're firing more than twice as often?
Reduce damage as the 'beam capacitors' (or whatever) have less time to recharge between shots?
Reduce accuracy significantly because your systems aren't really aiming so much as suppressive fire?
Remove buff/debuff stacking, so that only the strongest one in a particular class at a time applies? It'd make the assorted alpha-strikes and everything-on-cooldown approach less relevant as skills become something you use when appropriate, as all-the-time wouldn't accomplish much. Increase the value of a solid base foundation rather than minmaxing and AOE spam.
I mean you use it for spam clearance and attention-getting for tanks its a wonderful tool, but as an offensive weapon....well how often did we see that in any of the shows?
Bringing up how things work in the shows is somewhat pointless; otherwise, it would have been that torpedoes are the power player weapons, while beams and cannons are near worthless until torpedoes smashed shields down to allow beams and cannons to tear into hulls with torpedoes delivering the coup de grace.
The problem at this point with trying to nerf FAW is that it will just lead to a downward spiraling of nerfing abilities because one side just doesn't like it. Currently, we have cannon users and torp users complaining about FAW. Next, we'll have beam and torp users complain about CS and CRF. Then we'll get cannon and beam users complaining that sci skills do more DPS now (even despite the fact that Sci skills have been weakened due to NPC resistances).
Honestly, FAW at most, needs a temporary weapon power drain (which can be offset by Plasmonic Leech, like any DPS Cannon Build). But otherwise, should just be left alone, with focus instead being put towards boosting Cannon and Torpedo skills.
Most MMOs for AE skills have a simple rule... dmg is divided by the number of mobs with a min dmg, also you there a limit to number of mobs hit...
If the AE nuke hits for 50k then if 1 mob it's 50k for 1 mob or if 20 mobs then it's 50K divided by 20 for each mob plus a bonus per mob. That way it's always better to group mobs up and you do more dmg total the more mobs there are... but still each mob takes less the full 50k and the more mobs there are in the group the more the pain is shared. it's a balancing act between max total dmg and effect dmg to mob(s) in a group.
In ST, weapon dmg is based on power levels... so if you shoot a beam at 1 mob that's 100% to that mob... if you split the beam to 2 mobs... each mob still gets 100% effect... that does not make sense. but for ST FAW is random targeted mobs...
Sadly, as I read through this all I see is NERF FAW, regardless if that is your intent or not. With all of the balancing Cryptic is trying to enforce, eliminating the differences between the three main types of ships, I can see they would have no hesitation to nerf the FAW skill. A skill I find useful on both my ENG and TAC ships. ESPECIALLY in PVE as the Vaadwuar love those @#$! clustertorps.
However, even in STFs, FAW is a skill that shouldnt be used frivolously. It has its purpose but if you use it every time the CD is done youre wasting it. Worse, it may still be in CD when you actually need it.
As far as making heavy torps, etc. untargetable, I disagree, to a degree. Cloaked and transphasic mines should NOT be targetable. Cloaked is easy to see why. Transphasic well, theyre SUPPOSED to be transphasic. In and out of real space This would go for torps, too, I would imagine: fire a TP torp and it is targettable for 1-2 seconds before it phases out, for 2-3 seconds then phases in, rinse and repeat until destroyed or impacts its target. Thats what comes to mind when I hear the term transphasic at any rate.
Heavy grav, plasma torps, etc., however, should be targetable just as they are slow moving heavy hitters. Easy to distract the NPC in pve when you have a hangar (jam sensors, fire the torp, they concentrate on your shuttles until boom!) not so easy in PVP. But then again, PVP is broken beyond repair. There is absolutely no reason to enter into PVP unless youre an elite DPS machine with steroid-infused hull and shields and want a challenge against the same. There is absolutely no balance in PVP as it stands and, imho, no reason to even enter the queue.
IF Cryptic were even remotely interested in releasing PVP related goods, Id suggest the ability to craft or upgrade a torp with (jam); the ability to jam the sensors of its intended target for a short duration. Granted, a smart player can go into evasive manoeuvres until the jamming wear off or might even have an ability slotted to shrug the effect off and target the torp, but this would be a great tool to have in-game.
At any rate, for any of you who are asking Cryptic to fix anything in the game such as FAW, please think what you are asking. Remember Fido the last time you took him to the vet to get fixed
Sadly, as I read through this all I see is NERF FAW, regardless if that is your intent or not.
Sounds like a personal problem, don't need to write a book about it.
FAW would be fine if any other option was nearly as viable.
Torpedoes are meant to be hull busters, but rarely do you have stripped shields on advanced/elite. Even if they are, enemies now have insane kinetic resists against torpedoes - completely negating the very intent of torps in the first place. Its like giving someone ice cream but on the stipulation they can only eat it once it reaches room temperature. Its insane.
Cannons aren't as bad, but they still suffer from insane weapon drain that beams don't need to worry about. The trade off is.. it looks different. And you do slightly less damage. And cannon skills (all whopping two of them) aren't as easy to fit into tac seating.
Most MMOs for AE skills have a simple rule... dmg is divided by the number of mobs with a min dmg, also you there a limit to number of mobs hit...
If the AE nuke hits for 50k then if 1 mob it's 50k for 1 mob or if 20 mobs then it's 50K divided by 20 for each mob plus a bonus per mob. That way it's always better to group mobs up and you do more dmg total the more mobs there are... but still each mob takes less the full 50k and the more mobs there are in the group the more the pain is shared. it's a balancing act between max total dmg and effect dmg to mob(s) in a group.
In ST, weapon dmg is based on power levels... so if you shoot a beam at 1 mob that's 100% to that mob... if you split the beam to 2 mobs... each mob still gets 100% effect... that does not make sense. but for ST FAW is random targeted mobs...
Or you gain the ability to hit multipe targets but your base damage goes down.
Aka instead of csv doing %125 to each target up to 3 it could do %75 upto 5 targets. Now crf would have a point because using csv vs a single target would be a dps loss and vs 2 targets it would be even but csv spreads the damage where crf puts it all on 1 target at 3+ enemies csv would pull ahead.
Sounds like a personal problem, don't need to write a book about it.
Cannons aren't as bad, but they still suffer from insane weapon drain that beams don't need to worry about. The trade off is.. it looks different. And you do slightly less damage. And cannon skills (all whopping two of them) aren't as easy to fit into tac seating.
From what i have seen cannons and torpedo's on the top end are doing about the same dps but the problem is both are only doing about 1/3 of the dps beams are doing.
Call me crazy but wouldn't it be easier to nerf 1 over used and over preforming ability instead of creating more power creep and buffing more abilities that don't need it?
Sorry FAW needs to be toned down. And yeah Science abilities in general need a MAJOR revamp and well the underlying notion that DPS is king and the holy trinity means TRIBBLE, well that needs to be revisited.
But honestly FAW needs to be cut back. Personally I'd give it a 5 second duration if that and that would solve a lot of problems.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
Call me crazy but wouldn't it be easier to nerf 1 over used and over preforming ability instead of creating more power creep and buffing more abilities that don't need it?
Sorry FAW needs to be toned down. And yeah Science abilities in general need a MAJOR revamp and well the underlying notion that DPS is king and the holy trinity means TRIBBLE, well that needs to be revisited.
But honestly FAW needs to be cut back. Personally I'd give it a 5 second duration if that and that would solve a lot of problems.
They should just make DD powers more effective than AE. As it is now, you can AE blap everything into oblivion due to AE efficiency at turning pixel ships into pixel explosions.
My problem as a science with tons of acc is that when I use phased biomatter or refracting tetryon the 2.5% chance of bouncing is entirely too low so it's pretty much useless to have even when you crit.
Why have something in the game that's pretty much going to have a 0% chance of happening?
If they'd open those beams up to being 5% chance like they had them before fewer ships would need FAW to do AOE style attacks. They could even change the effects of the Phase Biomatter beams so they actually make a small cloud the same color to give us an indicator of where they hit (because I've seen nothing really) and they could make other weapons like the 8472 beams create small lingering clouds of radiation when they go off at least then we could visually see them working.
Lol, here's a thought that would put a major damper on energy weapons.
Give ships hull a innate 75% energy resistance, similar to how shields have an innate 75% kinetic resistance!
How's that for, creating a forced need of kinetic weapons on all ships?
People would still run the KCB but, when it becomes the primary hull dmg, while energy weapons are simply plinking little to nothing, it would certainly give the dps channel peeps something to strive for, when it comes to build designs!
Comments
"Everyone is using FAW to roll through content."
"Alright, lets make science and torpedo skills less useful in advanced and useless in our new elite"
So I upgraded my scimitar and, upgraded my beams an just laughed, FAW and never looked back ( thanks cryptic ).
As far as Beams vs Cannons, the damage loss at range that cannons suffer compared to beams keeps the balance, since beams do less damage per shot on average than a cannon shot (and if we talk psudo-science, a beam is continuous energy keeping it powered vs the short bursts of energy that makes up a cannon shot).
FAW is easy because there's no real damage loss for Beam weapons at maximum range compared to Cannons, which have notable damage loss at maximum range. This wouldn't have been as big a problem for cannons if players could equip at least regular single cannons on the rear and have a Cannon Fire at Will ability instead of Cannon Spread, with the same basic advantages FAW abilities have. Cannons would still have inferior max range damage, but at least now they can multi-target without needing a Gwell to cluster their enemies.
Additionally, to make Dual Cannons useful, they could at least offer them a wider firing angle compared to Dual Heavy Cannons, to further complement a theoretical C:FAW ability. The majority of damage would still be concentrated forwards (as it should given that's the advantage of Cannons), but at least they can deal more overall DPS to grouped opponents.
On the torpedo (and by extension, mines) side of things, Cryptic could at least do away with the excessive and unnecessary resistances to torpedo damage they've implemented with DR, as well as remove global cooldowns on them entirely. They weren't the 1HKO weapons that they are in the TV and movie series, but pre-DR, at least they worked well to complement damage dealing from cannons and beams with their own unique capabilities. As well, NPCs were still tough enough to handle multiple torpedoes at once due to their shield resistances.
The Sci side of things also could use a boost; namely, make their debuffs and holds more effective. Sci ships already trade DPS for heavy science; the least they could do is be capable of stripping away enough buffs or boosts to allow their own weapons to deal enough damage to offset the lack of Tactical Consoles and abilities.
I don't think I'd go that far. The larger issue is probably overpopulated combat encounters.
AoE DPS should outdamage single target in heavily AoE situations.
Honestly despite playing games and even RPGs most of my life, I keep looking back to WoW (which wasn't even my first MMO) and the education I got there running all three warrior specs through several major phases of class balance. There's a LOT to learn from the old warrior community there in terms of what Blizzard did right and wrong just with warriors because you get a really focused look at everything in an MMO aside from Crowd Control and healing.
AoE and single target work best as situational tools.
I'm generally someone who heaps praise on content and grumbles at systems decisions but I think a lot of the balance issues in STO may be less with powers and more with content and encounter design.
We fight multiple enemies at a time too much for the powers we have. This is true for Fleet Support, in which Fleet Support can mean having a powerful ally for 10 minutes (something I suspect is more power than was intended). It's true for BFAW's overpowedness. It ties into why leveling is so tedious and frustrating whenever the difficulty ramps up. It features into the genocidal captain complaints from loreheads.
If spammy fights were rare, BFAW would be fine. If BFAW were nerfed, it would be underpowered if used randomly or in the wrong situations which penalizes unskilled and uneducated players more than the skilled players.
The problem is that there's too much NPC spam and too much reliance on it to create content. Reduce the spam hordes and BFAW will cease to be overpowered.
And higher enemy HP will be welcome because these fights will feel like 1-on-1 encounters between similarly capable ships. Goes back to my thoughts that a single borg cube should feel like a boss fight. The tactical cube in ISA is almost close to what I'd like to see the normal borg cubes be, but it attacks too slowly. (Hive, on the other hand...)
Mine Trap Supporter
The majority of the player base claims enemy are too tough, cant dps them down fast enough.
The majority of the player base slots one of the softest hitting weapons in the game on their ships (beam arrays).
I see a correlation there.
Anyone think a cannon vaper is not killing the new targets fast enough? I am behind the curve, but I have not met anything that survived very long to a rapid fire, and I am not even a ultra dpser, just a casual player. The only thing that has really been troublesome so far are those blue X balls the vard drop, and evasive or rock&roll counters that cleanly (or moving fast, if you have built up your ship for high speed). Those were dangerous to me at first, resulting in a couple of blow ups, but live, learn, and adapt
CSV = 125% damage on 3 targets...
This is the problem.
It should NOT gain damage, it should loose damage to hit many targets...
Should be
FAW = 75% damage on 3 targets
CSV = 75% damage on 3 targets.
The fact that we have a choice... target 1 hard, or target 3 hard too... Its dumb...
If you add more targets the damage per target should go down.. but it doesn't it goes up a lot. FAW should be to gain agro.. NOT to kill everything.
CSV is the same thing, but worse because CRF is 150% damage on 1 target. CSV is 125 on 3... meaning 375% damage output... That is just dumb. At least beam overload crits and does a massive spike damage. CRF is just a faster shot.
I run a defiant 1 target ship. I get 9-12k dps with this but can do 20-25 with CSV. What one is more fun to fly? What one is stronger?
Except that prioritizes using it when it's intended to be used only. It penalizes stupidity.
As it stands, intelligent play is overpowered in STO and unintelligent "dumb" play is underpowered.
There is a real problem when a skilled player can do 3, 5, 10 times the DPS of a button masher.
It's too much advantage and creates content gaps that no difficulty level gap will solve.
Skilled play should have maybe a 20% edge over button mashing.
Making an ability something that could cost a player damage widens the gap between skilled and unskilled players.
Well no skill maybe, but useless in PvP when there is a beam boat about. The only weapons mine related which are of any use are the cluster torps. You drop any mines in Pvp, and in a matter of femto seconds a beam boat would have blasted the lot of them.
The same with the heavy torps, handy in PvE, useless in PvP.
I say, keep the Fire at Will the same, but make mines and heavy torps untargetable to beams and cannons.
It should do
225% damage (3x75) 3 targets or more means more damage with proper use...
150% damgae (2x75) 2 targets means same damage output of single target users but 2 targets.
75% damage (1x75) 1 target... dont use BFAW or you loose dps.
This is the proper way 99% of games do AOE powers. AOE = lower single target dps, higher group dps.
Currently there IS NO reason to slot CRF besides liking it. It cant NOT get the same damage output. The only time CRF is better is boss targets with only 1. Any other time its better to take the 125% damage on 3 targets than 150% on 1.
I LOVE CRF because its canon. That is the only reason i use it. I play for fun, but know that swapping my CRF for CSV and i will gain 2-3x the dps because of how those two powers are set up.
Just my opinion anyway.
Everybody, this man has the answer, lets retire every other weapon choice and all run Beam Boats. :cool:
I'm not sure even if BFAW is supreme that this is the solution.
I'm pretty happy with 3 beam/3cannon/1 torp.
Though maybe weapon diversification would be a sound decision from a design POV (that people would scream about since people seem to love pure weapon builds).
Personally, I think each weapon should get a unique additional mod that only improves weapons not of its type.
When i fire my dhc i lose 12 power for each one after the first
When i fire my beam array the first 5 don't even move my power bar below 125
Getting 30k dps on a dhc ship is amazing no matter what gear is used it takes alot of skill meanwhile 30k dps on a beam boat takes some skill but is mostly gear.
The highest dhc build i have seen is 35k dps meanwhile beams have broken 100k dps.
Reduce damage as the 'beam capacitors' (or whatever) have less time to recharge between shots?
Reduce accuracy significantly because your systems aren't really aiming so much as suppressive fire?
Remove buff/debuff stacking, so that only the strongest one in a particular class at a time applies? It'd make the assorted alpha-strikes and everything-on-cooldown approach less relevant as skills become something you use when appropriate, as all-the-time wouldn't accomplish much. Increase the value of a solid base foundation rather than minmaxing and AOE spam.
I mean you use it for spam clearance and attention-getting for tanks its a wonderful tool, but as an offensive weapon....well how often did we see that in any of the shows?
The problem at this point with trying to nerf FAW is that it will just lead to a downward spiraling of nerfing abilities because one side just doesn't like it. Currently, we have cannon users and torp users complaining about FAW. Next, we'll have beam and torp users complain about CS and CRF. Then we'll get cannon and beam users complaining that sci skills do more DPS now (even despite the fact that Sci skills have been weakened due to NPC resistances).
Honestly, FAW at most, needs a temporary weapon power drain (which can be offset by Plasmonic Leech, like any DPS Cannon Build). But otherwise, should just be left alone, with focus instead being put towards boosting Cannon and Torpedo skills.
If the AE nuke hits for 50k then if 1 mob it's 50k for 1 mob or if 20 mobs then it's 50K divided by 20 for each mob plus a bonus per mob. That way it's always better to group mobs up and you do more dmg total the more mobs there are... but still each mob takes less the full 50k and the more mobs there are in the group the more the pain is shared. it's a balancing act between max total dmg and effect dmg to mob(s) in a group.
In ST, weapon dmg is based on power levels... so if you shoot a beam at 1 mob that's 100% to that mob... if you split the beam to 2 mobs... each mob still gets 100% effect... that does not make sense. but for ST FAW is random targeted mobs...
However, even in STFs, FAW is a skill that shouldnt be used frivolously. It has its purpose but if you use it every time the CD is done youre wasting it. Worse, it may still be in CD when you actually need it.
As far as making heavy torps, etc. untargetable, I disagree, to a degree. Cloaked and transphasic mines should NOT be targetable. Cloaked is easy to see why. Transphasic well, theyre SUPPOSED to be transphasic. In and out of real space This would go for torps, too, I would imagine: fire a TP torp and it is targettable for 1-2 seconds before it phases out, for 2-3 seconds then phases in, rinse and repeat until destroyed or impacts its target. Thats what comes to mind when I hear the term transphasic at any rate.
Heavy grav, plasma torps, etc., however, should be targetable just as they are slow moving heavy hitters. Easy to distract the NPC in pve when you have a hangar (jam sensors, fire the torp, they concentrate on your shuttles until boom!) not so easy in PVP. But then again, PVP is broken beyond repair. There is absolutely no reason to enter into PVP unless youre an elite DPS machine with steroid-infused hull and shields and want a challenge against the same. There is absolutely no balance in PVP as it stands and, imho, no reason to even enter the queue.
IF Cryptic were even remotely interested in releasing PVP related goods, Id suggest the ability to craft or upgrade a torp with (jam); the ability to jam the sensors of its intended target for a short duration. Granted, a smart player can go into evasive manoeuvres until the jamming wear off or might even have an ability slotted to shrug the effect off and target the torp, but this would be a great tool to have in-game.
At any rate, for any of you who are asking Cryptic to fix anything in the game such as FAW, please think what you are asking. Remember Fido the last time you took him to the vet to get fixed
1. Increase the damage enemies do so people are forced out glass cannons builds.
Wow what a thought ahh drop EPW for RSP.
2.Lets bring SCI abilities up to beam damage.
If people had another choice besides FAW they would use it.
3. Improve damage on torpedoes.
Would it not be great if energy was less effective against hull and forced people to use torps more.
Sounds like a personal problem, don't need to write a book about it.
FAW would be fine if any other option was nearly as viable.
Torpedoes are meant to be hull busters, but rarely do you have stripped shields on advanced/elite. Even if they are, enemies now have insane kinetic resists against torpedoes - completely negating the very intent of torps in the first place. Its like giving someone ice cream but on the stipulation they can only eat it once it reaches room temperature. Its insane.
Cannons aren't as bad, but they still suffer from insane weapon drain that beams don't need to worry about. The trade off is.. it looks different. And you do slightly less damage. And cannon skills (all whopping two of them) aren't as easy to fit into tac seating.
Or you gain the ability to hit multipe targets but your base damage goes down.
Aka instead of csv doing %125 to each target up to 3 it could do %75 upto 5 targets. Now crf would have a point because using csv vs a single target would be a dps loss and vs 2 targets it would be even but csv spreads the damage where crf puts it all on 1 target at 3+ enemies csv would pull ahead.
From what i have seen cannons and torpedo's on the top end are doing about the same dps but the problem is both are only doing about 1/3 of the dps beams are doing.
Who peed in your cheerios?
Sorry FAW needs to be toned down. And yeah Science abilities in general need a MAJOR revamp and well the underlying notion that DPS is king and the holy trinity means TRIBBLE, well that needs to be revisited.
But honestly FAW needs to be cut back. Personally I'd give it a 5 second duration if that and that would solve a lot of problems.
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http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
The easiest solution is rarely the best one
I call it the Frigate Muncher.
My problem as a science with tons of acc is that when I use phased biomatter or refracting tetryon the 2.5% chance of bouncing is entirely too low so it's pretty much useless to have even when you crit.
Why have something in the game that's pretty much going to have a 0% chance of happening?
If they'd open those beams up to being 5% chance like they had them before fewer ships would need FAW to do AOE style attacks. They could even change the effects of the Phase Biomatter beams so they actually make a small cloud the same color to give us an indicator of where they hit (because I've seen nothing really) and they could make other weapons like the 8472 beams create small lingering clouds of radiation when they go off at least then we could visually see them working.
Been debating renaming my cruiser 'Staying Alive' since it looks like a disco ball for half the match. :P
Sarah Knightly - Co-leader; Frontier Explorers - U.S.S. Witchblade
Rias Gremory - Leader; Frontier Marauders - I.K.S. B'ullwinkle
Give ships hull a innate 75% energy resistance, similar to how shields have an innate 75% kinetic resistance!
How's that for, creating a forced need of kinetic weapons on all ships?
People would still run the KCB but, when it becomes the primary hull dmg, while energy weapons are simply plinking little to nothing, it would certainly give the dps channel peeps something to strive for, when it comes to build designs!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!