BFAW, seriously. Anything related to it should be nerfed into the ground, thankfully those godawful plasma consoles already were.
Cannons and cannon abilities need serious reworking starting with drop-off range and including more haste/recharge reductions which would benefit cannons like all those weapon power reductions benefit beams.
Both of my above requests could be easily fulfilled by simply firing the current producer. As I understand it he likes the current OPness of BFAW and refuses to let the engineers balance the powers. Although it could be someone else so feel free to correct me.
They actually still work really, really well, and most people are still stacking them 3 and 4 at a time (Embassy Console).
So to say they were nerfed into the ground is a bit of an exaggeration.
Changing FAW will also require a rework of some STFs. Some of the STFs seem to be tailored towards FAW spam.
Not sure about 'tailored', but I would say that the reason FAW works so well in ISA, for example, is that most of the targets barely move, which allows the park-n-shoot FAW spam-method and the resulting high DPS numbers.
Not just ISA.
It also works for Fleet Alert, CC, Khitomer, Cure, GG, Undine BZ, general space patrols/FEs and more - those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Of course you have to move around to get the spawns (and maybe hit F once or twice), but once you're there, Park and Pew.
Not to mention all the Iconian related STFs with their spawn SPAM.
Balance is a delicate thing though. You can't nerf player abilities without a corresponding adjustment in NPC hitpoints and damage. While most of us tend to gravitate and look towards the top DPS players as proof of imbalance, it's usually the mid end that gets hit hard whenever a nerf comes in and that's where the majority of the players are.
Quite true. That's why I said that one of the first things that needs to be looked at (nerf wise) is NPC HP. They were, as far as I know, jacked up and increased based off of artificially inflated DPS coming from things like the broken Enhanced Armor Penetration and Plasma Doping (either the Burn or Explosion). Now that those two errant abilities have been corrected, it's time that the unnecessarily high HP is looked at.
Top end players still continue to blaze right through HP meatsponges as if they weren't even there, but it's the middle and low end that struggle with it. The top end is going to blast through regardless of what they do, but the rest of the population is getting screwed over by the HP.
To add to the discussion, DPS is an illusion.
From a PVE standpoint, max damage doesn't really matter until the majority of players can blaze through a mission meant to last x minutes. To simplify things, there is no difference if you are doing 100k DPS vs an enemy of 1M HP or 10k DPS vs an enemy of 100k HP. In the end it'll take the same amount of time. Players may QQ about the 90k they lost but as long as NPC HP is balanced for that change, it really shouldn't matter.
The issue is that big numbers make people look good so selling powercreep is a major cash draw for Cryptic. It's all an illusion because of the above.
Top end players still continue to blaze right through HP meatsponges as if they weren't even there, but it's the middle and low end that struggle with it. The top end is going to blast through regardless of what they do, but the rest of the population is getting screwed over by the HP.
Isnt this the purpose of normal difficulty? You got lower than players hull to equal to players hull for NPCs(50 -100khp) at normal difficulty?
One of the advantages I see this is for PvP players not to spend a dime nor adapting to PvE mechanics. in order for them to use exactly the same build from PvP to PvE.
The other set of people mostly affected by HP sponges are players goes over their heads where they dont belong, normal skilled player going to advance or elite. Advance level of player going to Elite level. Isnt this the fault of the player rather than the game since they made the decision to go beyond what they are capable off?
Both of which I stated above have nothing to do with an average player or a normal player belong at normal or an advance skilled player belonging at advance. But rather vested interest and selfishness. If that really is a normal skilled player then that normal skilled player should be able to kill a 50k NPC. If that is an advance player then should be able to kill 100-500k HP npc.
Now, if a player cannot even kill NPCs lower than 50k HP, by any means, i mean there is nothing lower than normal difficulty in the current mechanics unless you are in favor of leeching.
All Hands on Deck: Maybe controversial. But this game was balanced around cooldowns. I think many can agree that AHoD's CD reduction is a slap in the face of that. All things being equal, a player using AHoD vs a player not using AHoD provides a pretty hefty advantage (disproportionately big, compared to other traits). Suggestion: Maybe make it only reduce Sci BOff CDs, and not Captain CDs?
I cant get behind this as it represents a bait and switch tactic similar to our recent post upgrade weekend plasma nerf. The Tactical Command Battle Cruiser was marketed and sold with this trait and therefore was popular because of it. Nerfing it will serve only TRIBBLE players off even more than they are and create more reason for us to question Cryptic's integrity. I think a balancing of captain abilities would go a long way to helping the issue, at least between careers.
Torpedo Mods: @OdenKnight (I forget his forum handle) has done extensive testing to show that torpedo mods are not granting the appropriate damage buffs. Torpedoes are being robbed of damage.
CSV: On paper, it has the potential to be better than FAW. In reality, it's not close.
Cannon Range/Damage Drop-Off: It made sense back in the day, not so much now - especially when Beams have so much more going for them. Either dial it back, or remove it entirely.
Tac Consoles: @jarvisandalfred has done testing on these and shown that they're not providing anywhere near the amount of the buff that they should be.
Math, tooltips, and numbers: They are beyond confusing. Sometimes 10% is 10%, sometimes 33% works out to 4%. We need to have all of this clarified so that it makes sense to users. Example: The Sustained Radiant Field console says it gives a 10% damage boost, but it's actually not 10% at all. The 4% damage boost from Nukara Aux: Offense is significantly more than that - anywhere other than STO and Cryptic Land, 10% > 4%.
No, it's because they have longer firing cycles. They're actively firing for 4 seconds before they refresh the drained power, so they can benefit from an overcap of 4xPTR, while DHC's only are active for 1 second before they refresh the drained power, so they only benefit from an overcap of 1xPTR.
I think that's why cannons are hit harder by lag than beams. If one were to get 2 second lag the beams will still be on a firing cycle but the cannons will miss the user's instructions to start firing again.
The butlers' comment was pretty much what I meant about "inferior firing cycle mechanics"; they have worse drain, so they "benefit" more from overcapping than cannons-type weapons that don't experience quite as much drain from firing. It's an illusory benefit, resulting from actively compensating for drain, thereby parsing higher numbers than if you hadn't compensated... which cannons don't have to worry about nearly as much. It's active mitigation of a shortcoming, rather than a benefit per se.
Your point about lag, though, is a very good one... the same firing cycle that increases drain and creates the "benefit" of overcapping does make for better results during a lag situation, all the more so when B:FAW does the target selection for you. On the plus side, the devs have stated outright that they intend to nerf lag as much as possible, and have already taken several steps in that direction. Hopefully they can get that sorted out, since lag really is OP... nothing else can debuff a player so much, and there aren't always counters or cleanses to deal with it.
With each passing day I wonder if I stepped into an alternate reality. The Cubs win the world series. Donald Trump is President. Britain leaves the EU. STO gets a dedicated PvP season. Engineers are "out of control" in STO.
Changing FAW will also require a rework of some STFs. Some of the STFs seem to be tailored towards FAW spam.
Not sure about 'tailored', but I would say that the reason FAW works so well in ISA, for example, is that most of the targets barely move, which allows the park-n-shoot FAW spam-method and the resulting high DPS numbers.
Not just ISA.
It also works for Fleet Alert, CC, Khitomer, Cure, GG, Undine BZ, general space patrols/FEs and more - those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
Of course you have to move around to get the spawns (and maybe hit F once or twice), but once you're there, Park and Pew.
Not to mention all the Iconian related STFs with their spawn SPAM.
Balance is a delicate thing though. You can't nerf player abilities without a corresponding adjustment in NPC hitpoints and damage. While most of us tend to gravitate and look towards the top DPS players as proof of imbalance, it's usually the mid end that gets hit hard whenever a nerf comes in and that's where the majority of the players are.
Quite true. That's why I said that one of the first things that needs to be looked at (nerf wise) is NPC HP. They were, as far as I know, jacked up and increased based off of artificially inflated DPS coming from things like the broken Enhanced Armor Penetration and Plasma Doping (either the Burn or Explosion). Now that those two errant abilities have been corrected, it's time that the unnecessarily high HP is looked at.
Top end players still continue to blaze right through HP meatsponges as if they weren't even there, but it's the middle and low end that struggle with it. The top end is going to blast through regardless of what they do, but the rest of the population is getting screwed over by the HP.
To add to the discussion, DPS is an illusion.
From a PVE standpoint, max damage doesn't really matter until the majority of players can blaze through a mission meant to last x minutes. To simplify things, there is no difference if you are doing 100k DPS vs an enemy of 1M HP or 10k DPS vs an enemy of 100k HP. In the end it'll take the same amount of time. Players may QQ about the 90k they lost but as long as NPC HP is balanced for that change, it really shouldn't matter.
The issue is that big numbers make people look good so selling powercreep is a major cash draw for Cryptic. It's all an illusion because of the above.
No, it's because they have longer firing cycles. They're actively firing for 4 seconds before they refresh the drained power, so they can benefit from an overcap of 4xPTR, while DHC's only are active for 1 second before they refresh the drained power, so they only benefit from an overcap of 1xPTR.
I think that's why cannons are hit harder by lag than beams. If one were to get 2 second lag the beams will still be on a firing cycle but the cannons will miss the user's instructions to start firing again.
The butlers' comment was pretty much what I meant about "inferior firing cycle mechanics"; they have worse drain, so they "benefit" more from overcapping than cannons-type weapons that don't experience quite as much drain from firing. It's an illusory benefit, resulting from actively compensating for drain, thereby parsing higher numbers than if you hadn't compensated... which cannons don't have to worry about nearly as much. It's active mitigation of a shortcoming, rather than a benefit per se.
Your point about lag, though, is a very good one... the same firing cycle that increases drain and creates the "benefit" of overcapping does make for better results during a lag situation, all the more so when B:FAW does the target selection for you. On the plus side, the devs have stated outright that they intend to nerf lag as much as possible, and have already taken several steps in that direction. Hopefully they can get that sorted out, since lag really is OP... nothing else can debuff a player so much, and there aren't always counters or cleanses to deal with it.
My lag is way better after the last patch. Before I would go 2-5 seconds without being able to fire a cannon. Now, they fire just fine . Now all they need to do is fix the CrtD bug with DHCs and CSV.
Aceton Beam:
Description updated to reflect stacking limitations: Dmg effect applies, but all Radiation DOTs stack.
Increased base damage at all ranks by ~250%.
Comments
They actually still work really, really well, and most people are still stacking them 3 and 4 at a time (Embassy Console).
So to say they were nerfed into the ground is a bit of an exaggeration.
Nerf: You
mi doin it rite?
From a PVE standpoint, max damage doesn't really matter until the majority of players can blaze through a mission meant to last x minutes. To simplify things, there is no difference if you are doing 100k DPS vs an enemy of 1M HP or 10k DPS vs an enemy of 100k HP. In the end it'll take the same amount of time. Players may QQ about the 90k they lost but as long as NPC HP is balanced for that change, it really shouldn't matter.
The issue is that big numbers make people look good so selling powercreep is a major cash draw for Cryptic. It's all an illusion because of the above.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
Isnt this the purpose of normal difficulty? You got lower than players hull to equal to players hull for NPCs(50 -100khp) at normal difficulty?
One of the advantages I see this is for PvP players not to spend a dime nor adapting to PvE mechanics. in order for them to use exactly the same build from PvP to PvE.
The other set of people mostly affected by HP sponges are players goes over their heads where they dont belong, normal skilled player going to advance or elite. Advance level of player going to Elite level. Isnt this the fault of the player rather than the game since they made the decision to go beyond what they are capable off?
Both of which I stated above have nothing to do with an average player or a normal player belong at normal or an advance skilled player belonging at advance. But rather vested interest and selfishness. If that really is a normal skilled player then that normal skilled player should be able to kill a 50k NPC. If that is an advance player then should be able to kill 100-500k HP npc.
Now, if a player cannot even kill NPCs lower than 50k HP, by any means, i mean there is nothing lower than normal difficulty in the current mechanics unless you are in favor of leeching.
A decent attempt at balancing out currently worthless things. I like it.
I cant get behind this as it represents a bait and switch tactic similar to our recent post upgrade weekend plasma nerf. The Tactical Command Battle Cruiser was marketed and sold with this trait and therefore was popular because of it. Nerfing it will serve only TRIBBLE players off even more than they are and create more reason for us to question Cryptic's integrity. I think a balancing of captain abilities would go a long way to helping the issue, at least between careers.
I'm always down for legit fixes.
The butlers' comment was pretty much what I meant about "inferior firing cycle mechanics"; they have worse drain, so they "benefit" more from overcapping than cannons-type weapons that don't experience quite as much drain from firing. It's an illusory benefit, resulting from actively compensating for drain, thereby parsing higher numbers than if you hadn't compensated... which cannons don't have to worry about nearly as much. It's active mitigation of a shortcoming, rather than a benefit per se.
Your point about lag, though, is a very good one... the same firing cycle that increases drain and creates the "benefit" of overcapping does make for better results during a lag situation, all the more so when B:FAW does the target selection for you. On the plus side, the devs have stated outright that they intend to nerf lag as much as possible, and have already taken several steps in that direction. Hopefully they can get that sorted out, since lag really is OP... nothing else can debuff a player so much, and there aren't always counters or cleanses to deal with it.
Excellent post My lag is way better after the last patch. Before I would go 2-5 seconds without being able to fire a cannon. Now, they fire just fine
Looks like they do listen!