Its like you're playing a different game. I've run a lot of GGA for my iconian marks, and while there definitely are those times the team works well and has enough AOE DPS to keep the spam under control, more often than not they do not. In those teams, whatever ship I'm in, whether I am running CSV, BFAW, TS, or GW, or whatever combination I have, inevitably I find myself forced to manually target probes to actually destroy them and get some breathing room. This of course requires fighting the UI.
When you have 30+ targets because the team thinks focusing the dreadnaught is the way to play this STF, BFAW stops being effective at all. The nature of how spread out they get means GW probably isn't working well either. The speed of fighters and probes means they very often fly right through a cannon arc before CSV can destroy them, but if they stay long enough it is very effective. TS remains effective, if you have enough torpedo damage behind it to actually kill off a probe with a spread, and if you managed to target one with the TS. The crafted torpedo works especially well here as it can stop them cold with the plasma cloud, but TS has a very long cooldown, compared to how much you need to keep the spam under control.
Yet there is simply so much spam and AOE is only so effective that manual targeting to remove the spam ends up being all too common. Getting disabled then also becomes common. If you don't ever experience this problem, then you are really lucky. But for myself, I find it far too common, especially in GGA.
It is less of a problem solo, yet is still a possible problem solo because then it is only your DPS in play where you have to burn down probes with 7k+ HP and solar portals with 15k+. For most people, BFAW isn't going to kill a solar portal before it burns you hard, scatter volley can't help when it shows up behind you, neither can GW or TS, usually.
Further, the overwhelming damage the Heralds do is what really makes this most frustrating of all. Tholians have ridiculous amounts of weapon disables, but generally the damage they do isn't so over the top that it is an annoyance more than anything else. Heralds love their 50k+ transphasic torpedo spreads, their ridiculous ramming attacks, and the absurd solar gateways, and combine that with a frustrating amount of disables and an incredible amount of spam.
Of course you can adapt, use the right boff powers, learn to deal with the things they do, fly better, and be much more effective at fighting them than you were before you knew how to deal with what they did. That doesn't make them remotely fun.
I am fairly glad that my main grinding out the iconian rep so everyone else can get the sponsorship is a science ship that runs FAW, TS, and GW with reciprocity to significantly help my FAW and TS. It has been the most effective ship/build to fight the heralds with in my stable, yet I do not find it very fun, because inevitably I am manually targeting probes and portals and getting one/two shotted by rammers, torpedo spreads, and sometimes the solar portals I couldn't stop in time. But it ultimately means the rest of my characters with less effective ships don't have to grind as much because the best one earned the sponsorships.
I just wish they'd reduce the hp of the Herald pets/portals. Stuff like that should very nearly be one hit kill. I found it so tedious to face a couple of Herald ships, and to spend all of my time targeting pets, never having an opportunity to shoot the ships before they spawn another.
Not that it's impossible or too difficult, it just takes forfrigginever.
Best solution to the solar gates, be situation aware and take down the gate first, the probes are an irritation at best
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
OMG, the amount of Self Defeat in this thread is amazing. People lead you guys to clean drinking water in the desert and you shun away from it. Very well, then. Godspeed!
You're using it for the push - the damage is a nice touch. The magnitude of the push scales with your Aux and GravGens. Even if you're using a minimal amount of both, you'll push them out enough so that they won't be able to disable you.
I would be using it for the damage. The extra 2-3 seconds the knocback buys me are comparable to the immunity bought by ET.
They're going to make you work a little. Is that so wrong?
Seems like a contrived mechanic aimed at doing little more than increasing the time it takes to complete the mission, like doubling or tripling the NPCs' health.
If probes were half as active, or half as numerous, it could be an interesting mechanic.
"Tolerance and apathy are the last virtues of a dying society." - Aristotle
Seems like a contrived mechanic aimed at doing little more than increasing the time it takes to complete the mission, like doubling or tripling the NPCs' health.
While true, it only works on people unwilling to adapt...
I would be using it for the damage. The extra 2-3 seconds the knocback buys me are comparable to the immunity bought by ET.
That's the dumbest idea I've heard so far.
Seems like a contrived mechanic aimed at doing little more than increasing the time it takes to complete the mission, like doubling or tripling the NPCs' health.
If probes were half as active, or half as numerous, it could be an interesting mechanic.
Alrighty, then.
You've taken every solution so far and either ignored them or nitpicked them to death.
If you want to just mash your Fire All Weapons and expect enemies to just soak damage til they die (even ones as dangerous as the Herald), then go on denying every solution put forth and don't even try.
Again, tell us what your ship is, and maybe we'll be able to find where you can squeeze some CC, AoE, or something in.
When you have 30+ targets because the team thinks focusing the dreadnaught is the way to play this STF, BFAW stops being effective at all.
LMAO Sorry the hardest ones are where players like you chase off after ads and let the Dread live far longer then it needs to. The longer it lives the more Ads and the more solar gates spawn. Kill the dread ASAP then the ads are not that overwhelming. If you haven't figured this out by now you are not fighting this part of that pve correctly.
Comments
When you have 30+ targets because the team thinks focusing the dreadnaught is the way to play this STF, BFAW stops being effective at all. The nature of how spread out they get means GW probably isn't working well either. The speed of fighters and probes means they very often fly right through a cannon arc before CSV can destroy them, but if they stay long enough it is very effective. TS remains effective, if you have enough torpedo damage behind it to actually kill off a probe with a spread, and if you managed to target one with the TS. The crafted torpedo works especially well here as it can stop them cold with the plasma cloud, but TS has a very long cooldown, compared to how much you need to keep the spam under control.
Yet there is simply so much spam and AOE is only so effective that manual targeting to remove the spam ends up being all too common. Getting disabled then also becomes common. If you don't ever experience this problem, then you are really lucky. But for myself, I find it far too common, especially in GGA.
It is less of a problem solo, yet is still a possible problem solo because then it is only your DPS in play where you have to burn down probes with 7k+ HP and solar portals with 15k+. For most people, BFAW isn't going to kill a solar portal before it burns you hard, scatter volley can't help when it shows up behind you, neither can GW or TS, usually.
Further, the overwhelming damage the Heralds do is what really makes this most frustrating of all. Tholians have ridiculous amounts of weapon disables, but generally the damage they do isn't so over the top that it is an annoyance more than anything else. Heralds love their 50k+ transphasic torpedo spreads, their ridiculous ramming attacks, and the absurd solar gateways, and combine that with a frustrating amount of disables and an incredible amount of spam.
Of course you can adapt, use the right boff powers, learn to deal with the things they do, fly better, and be much more effective at fighting them than you were before you knew how to deal with what they did. That doesn't make them remotely fun.
I am fairly glad that my main grinding out the iconian rep so everyone else can get the sponsorship is a science ship that runs FAW, TS, and GW with reciprocity to significantly help my FAW and TS. It has been the most effective ship/build to fight the heralds with in my stable, yet I do not find it very fun, because inevitably I am manually targeting probes and portals and getting one/two shotted by rammers, torpedo spreads, and sometimes the solar portals I couldn't stop in time. But it ultimately means the rest of my characters with less effective ships don't have to grind as much because the best one earned the sponsorships.
Best solution to the solar gates, be situation aware and take down the gate first, the probes are an irritation at best
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
That's the dumbest idea I've heard so far.
Seems like a contrived mechanic aimed at doing little more than increasing the time it takes to complete the mission, like doubling or tripling the NPCs' health.
If probes were half as active, or half as numerous, it could be an interesting mechanic.
Immunity (time)-stacking. Where exactly is the problem in this approach?
Well, dont blame him. Since you are so reluctant to think about using a more common approach, he is to think far outside the box.
While true, it only works on people unwilling to adapt...
Alrighty, then.
You've taken every solution so far and either ignored them or nitpicked them to death.
If you want to just mash your Fire All Weapons and expect enemies to just soak damage til they die (even ones as dangerous as the Herald), then go on denying every solution put forth and don't even try.
Again, tell us what your ship is, and maybe we'll be able to find where you can squeeze some CC, AoE, or something in.
LMAO Sorry the hardest ones are where players like you chase off after ads and let the Dread live far longer then it needs to. The longer it lives the more Ads and the more solar gates spawn. Kill the dread ASAP then the ads are not that overwhelming. If you haven't figured this out by now you are not fighting this part of that pve correctly.