I have to say this really annoys me. It's as if the devs just said we don't know how to balance STFs because their is such a wide gap between the different ships, so lets just add an OP Tachyon Beam which can drain all their shields to zero instead to increase the difficulty. If you have a speed or hull tanking ship then likely this isn't a huge problem, but if you are flying a Sci ship which has the least hull out of all the ships it's a problem as you are probably shield tanking because of the higher shield modifier.
Is there a good reason why an all powerful TB was added?
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Pretty much this. Tachyon Beam was always ludicrously weak for players. Now its actually useful. As for the Borg... well there's a reason shield heals exist. I just made it a habit to hit brace for impact once my shields were drained in that case, which can buy you the time you need to get them back up without dying from torpedoes. Power insulator also became a lot more important as part of the skill tree.
"Let them eat static!"
Longer story. One of the consoles/traits on the command battlecruisers works with Tachyon Beam. Old Tachyon Beam was next to pointless at endgame so it made the command battlecruisers look bad. Cryptic went "My money" and buff the power, helping out players and also the borg. I have no idea why the NPC version of the power has not been nerfed yet.
As for hull tanking in science ships being an issue... I think that depends both on what ship you pick and on your skill build, as a general rule I keep six points in both resist skills and then add one or two fleet neutroniums for about 40% all resist. I then run TSS on global cooldown to maintain shields as best possible only having 15 seconds downtime per cycle.
Or you just blow up. That's also an option.
Borg Tachyon Beam is NOT overpowered. If you're flying a Science Vessel and you can't keep your shields up, then the problem is with your build and not with the ability. First up, a Tier V/VI Science Vessel should have at least 20,000 shields/facing and a Fleet Tier V/VI ship should have at least 22,000 shields/facing. If this is not the case, then you need to upgrade your shields to Mk XIV, increase your Starship Shields Systems skill, and/or add 1-2 consoles that increases maximum shield capacity. The new research lab has both flow capacitor and particle generator consoles that increase shield capacity and the existing engineering and science crafting consoles both increase maximum shield capacity. If you can't get either of those, then there's also the Dyson reputation science consoles that increase maximum shield hit points. There's no reason you can't grab a [ShHP] modded console or two to close that gap.
Next up, slot the Superior Shield Repair reputation trait, make sure your auxiliary is reaching 125 and your shields 95+. Not enough power left over for an all energy weapons build you say? Fine, throw on energy siphon and plasmonic leech with an Emergency Power to Weapons + Emergency Power to Shields cycle. You'll be max power in all subsystems doing it that way. Not interested in power drain an want to do pure damage? Fine, throw on Gravity Well, Tykens Rift, and Resonance Beam while using all torpedo weapons and Torpedo Spread.
In the end; all one really needs is a good Mk XIV shield, a good group of science consoles, and a single reputation trait. The rest is cleaned up by Science Team, Transfer Shield Strength, and an EPtX chain. If one is truly worried, then they can even throw Reverse Shield Polarity to boot. Also, players can make their Tachyon Beam even worse than the Borg version and with double the uptime. Photonic Shockwave and all disables will prematurely cancel the Borg Tachyon Beam as well...if anyone ever bothered to use the counters. You are in a science vessel after all; there's no reason one can't use that ability.
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Considering it is a cut, it would be even nicer if we could fit the entire picture!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
To be fair, I give it back to them. They tachyon me! I let them have mine too!
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Funny how they couldn't extend the same courtesy to our pets, isn't it?! Oh noes, they were reportedly scaled up too high, and just *had* to be nerfed!
You've made a lot of assumptions here, none of which are true in my case. If you are shield tanking of course you concentrate on shield heals skills, and shield emitters etc. I using energy siphon and plasmonic leech (is there anyone who isn't). I've been playing sci for 3 years so I know what I'm doing. The point is I have to use all my shield heals when I get hit by borg TB, and it sucks those up too. People have already said this is an unintended effect, so I would rather the Devs fixed it rather have to change my whole build and skill allocation for an unintended effect.
In Summary after testing a Common white Shield mk xii with 20% plasma resist vs a Ultra Rare mk xiv Elite fleet shield res B there was no difference in performance between the 2 when fighting the Borg Shield neutralizer both died within secs.
Borg Neutraliser and Tachyon beam is overpowered, Go into Crystaline Entity Advanced and be hit by a couple of Tholians and boom shields on that facing drained, however as Cryptic can't be arsed to bring it back to pre-buff specs, its a case of stacking kinetic resist's when dealing with the Borg to combat torpedo hits
Tholians/Hirogen/Voth and Borg will totally TRIBBLE shields.
Cryptic is fast to implement things, too lazy to test them, and very slow to fix them. Its a good thing they only programm games and not actually important things like ABS-Systems and such.
Well said, and quite true I'm afraid. For anyone that doubts this, there have been multiple examples of this "release it, then nerf it" mantra that Cryptic seems so found of. I only wish I could say it's a recent development, but alas it's been like that since I've been playing. Although in recent times I've come to be more aware of it. But I guess a fair few of the players have as well now. What's even sadder is that people actually come to expect it now.
And this right here is why I will not spend on the game any more, and have not for coming up on a year. Especially after seeing my Vesta pets nerfed with a "Who cares?" attitude from those in charge, I will not risk another ship purchase knowing that could and likely will happen again. Now, I fly my Vesta not just because I like it, but to make sure I show T5-U's across the board on my toons and that I won't succumb to pressure tactics to get a T6 or join the high DPS race.
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Except it's not a bug...
That only works on the Shield Neutralizer. No effect on Tachyon Beam.
Its frustrating when they chain their Tachyon Beams too. Couple hit you, shields drain. Then you think you're clear and start restoring... ANOTHER Tachyon Beam or 3 from a group. See this all the time in Infected. And Power Insulators mean squat to Borg Tachyon Beam. Beam hits. Shields go pfft.
And I agree. No point in upgrading shields for that.
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This. I do the same and I generally don't have a problem with the Borg's shield drains. The trick is to wait for them to finish completely before you start restoring your shields or else they'll just drain away whatever heals you made.
While waiting for them to complete, you can also use your Scattering Field and Subspace Field Modulator combined with Brace for Impact or Polarize Hull to allow yourself to tank through their fire. After that, you can use Science Fleet and/or Biomolecular Shield Generator to accelerate your shield healing or slow down further drains.
All of the above should give any Science captain or ship ample time to either get out of trouble or take out the offending Borg. There is no need to nerf their shield drains. IMO it's not OP at all.
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Two things combined to create the current "NPC version" of Tachyon Beam: Delta Rising's "difficulty" increase consisting of increased shield/hull points and the buff to Tachyon Beam itself to make it relevant. The "difficulty" increase means that for players to use and see viable results of Tachyon Beam against NPC's, much less other players with their counters and actual skill, Tachyon Beam needs to be more powerful than it was before. That means the Tachyon Beam buff had to happen, and since NPC's pretty much have the same abilities we do theirs got buffed too. Players, however, have far less in the way of shield points than NPC's, so what is a viable ability used by players on NPC's becomes extremely powerful when heading in the other direction.
Basically, the "napkin math" version:
2) Plenty of space traits to help you keep your shields up.
3) Plenty of consoles and skills to help you survive (Power insulators come to mind)
If you think the spheres are bad, you should see my Tachyon Beam.