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Instead of nerfing BFAW. How about making it more tactical and still have some AOE ability
tinkerbelch
Member Posts: 138 Arc User
Reading some of the posts on nerfing BFAW, Can't say I want it nerfed, But would like it to have some tactical improvements and not just be AOE spam.
I like the idea of changing BFAW mechanics. I don't like the firing at two targets per beam. Is there an explanation for how that could be possible anyway? I know we currently pay for it with more drain. But I do kinda find it silly.
How about FAW change the base weapon mechanics. Currently a normal firing beam will fire 4 shots at the current target (not able to switch target), then a one second recharge.
Change it so FAW activates only one shot (one second fire cycle) with no recharge.
Targeting:
-20 acc for FAW I, Tries to fire at current target. If firing not possible or no target, selects debuffed target or random target in weapon arc
-10 acc for Faw II, Tries to fire at current target. If firing not possible or no target, selects debuffed target or nearest target in weapon arc
-0 acc for FAW III. Tries to fire at current target. If firing not possible or no target, selects debuffed target or nearest target with downed shield facing in weapon arc. (might need to be weakest nearby target, to make this work right)
(Prioritizing debuffed targets will help teamwork and quicker kills)
(Beware, enemy npcs should get this too)
Drain/fire rate:
The drain mechanic is unchanged, but ends up determining the firing rate. -10 drain per extra weapon firing as currently. As soon as power recovers to less than -10, it shoots the next beam that is ready to fire.
(This firing in sequence would allow for quick target switching)
(Firing rate would be determined by the power transfer rate of your ship and the extra transfer from having buffed power above 125, up to the point at which all weapons have fired)
(ships with lower power transfer rate will fire slower, but even so, waiting for drain recovery gives the advantage of not firing beams at lower weapon power, giving better chance to punch through a weakened shield facing rather than just being a weak shot)
(This would especially help a beam boat that is for some reason not running full weapon power) (would prevent firing beams near zero power)
Cooldown:
The ability lasts 15 seconds with CD of 30 seconds. Global cooldown 15sec. During the ability, for every second that there is no target to shoot at, the CD of the current officer gets reduced by one second to the global minimum of 15seconds.
(So if you activated FAW on a bridge officer but no targets could be fired upon, the ability is immediately reusable after the 15 seconds.) If there were targets, then either wait the cooldown or activate your second bridge officer.
My thinking:
I think the FAW prioritizing debuffed targets would make this much more team useful. After all it should be more tactical than aoe.
Engineering abilities need to be factored in this. Eps flow consoles might have to be considered in your build to trade tankiness for more fire rate. Might give a nice buff to engineering builds and eng captains who are likely stuck with FAW I and not FAW II or III.
This firing pattern would look a lot more like it does in TV shows. Not this dps spamming the whole map with 8 beams each firing at two targets.
More thoughts:
Maybe dual beam banks should be able to fire at two targets simultaneously.
Your comments.
I like the idea of changing BFAW mechanics. I don't like the firing at two targets per beam. Is there an explanation for how that could be possible anyway? I know we currently pay for it with more drain. But I do kinda find it silly.
How about FAW change the base weapon mechanics. Currently a normal firing beam will fire 4 shots at the current target (not able to switch target), then a one second recharge.
Change it so FAW activates only one shot (one second fire cycle) with no recharge.
Targeting:
-20 acc for FAW I, Tries to fire at current target. If firing not possible or no target, selects debuffed target or random target in weapon arc
-10 acc for Faw II, Tries to fire at current target. If firing not possible or no target, selects debuffed target or nearest target in weapon arc
-0 acc for FAW III. Tries to fire at current target. If firing not possible or no target, selects debuffed target or nearest target with downed shield facing in weapon arc. (might need to be weakest nearby target, to make this work right)
(Prioritizing debuffed targets will help teamwork and quicker kills)
(Beware, enemy npcs should get this too)
Drain/fire rate:
The drain mechanic is unchanged, but ends up determining the firing rate. -10 drain per extra weapon firing as currently. As soon as power recovers to less than -10, it shoots the next beam that is ready to fire.
(This firing in sequence would allow for quick target switching)
(Firing rate would be determined by the power transfer rate of your ship and the extra transfer from having buffed power above 125, up to the point at which all weapons have fired)
(ships with lower power transfer rate will fire slower, but even so, waiting for drain recovery gives the advantage of not firing beams at lower weapon power, giving better chance to punch through a weakened shield facing rather than just being a weak shot)
(This would especially help a beam boat that is for some reason not running full weapon power) (would prevent firing beams near zero power)
Cooldown:
The ability lasts 15 seconds with CD of 30 seconds. Global cooldown 15sec. During the ability, for every second that there is no target to shoot at, the CD of the current officer gets reduced by one second to the global minimum of 15seconds.
(So if you activated FAW on a bridge officer but no targets could be fired upon, the ability is immediately reusable after the 15 seconds.) If there were targets, then either wait the cooldown or activate your second bridge officer.
My thinking:
I think the FAW prioritizing debuffed targets would make this much more team useful. After all it should be more tactical than aoe.
Engineering abilities need to be factored in this. Eps flow consoles might have to be considered in your build to trade tankiness for more fire rate. Might give a nice buff to engineering builds and eng captains who are likely stuck with FAW I and not FAW II or III.
This firing pattern would look a lot more like it does in TV shows. Not this dps spamming the whole map with 8 beams each firing at two targets.
More thoughts:
Maybe dual beam banks should be able to fire at two targets simultaneously.
Your comments.
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Comments
The main problem with BFAW as it currently stands is that there's literally no downside to using it over traditional weapons fire. The increased energy drain is laughable given the massive sources of power available to players these days, while the ability grants at least an increase of 25% damage to your current target AND can double that amount if a second target is simultaneously targetable. In most MMOs, AoE abilities generally have one or more penalties along the lines of increased cooldown duration, increased cost, or reduced damage so that they are situational powers rather than powers you use at every opportunity. BFAW's current increased cost, as I said above, barely even registers, it has the same cooldown as Overload, and it has a higher theoretical total damage output than Overload, making it superior as a Beam ability in every respect and something that should be active whenever possible. The ability should still offer a higher damage output when fighting more than 1 target, but in my opinion it really shouldn't be outdoing autofire, let alone Overload, against 1 target.
The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
(Tactical heavy ships would gain the flexbility of being able to slot different kinds of weapon attacks rather than just slotting the same abilities twice.)
If BFAW still needs a 'nerf' after that, make it reduce weapon range(5-7km) or prioritize small targets first.
Biggest problems are how many buffs beam have...they don't suffer any of the penalties that cannons do...and they generally drain less power. FaW so much isn't powerful as much as beams and their buffs.
There is no balance between beams and cannons...none at all. There is none, to the point where I would say beams have unfair advantages.
If there is one change I would make to FaW is well...it should be more AoE...reduce the damage bonuses from it and maybe make it fire 3 shots, so it isn't as good as it as in single target, plus with this I think BO should get a buff...make it more like Singularity Overcharge
Without knowing how Bridge Officer abilities are set up behind the scenes, I doubt it's very easy to change the full functionality of a power between ranks. All other Bridge Officer abilities work exactly the same across ranks, just with different values depending on the type of ability it is. If the above were to become reality I suspect it would need to be done in such a way that FAW 1 is in actuality a totally different ability from FAW 2 and 3. Whether or not Cryptic would be willing to do that would be the most important question. It might not even be possible with the current system, I couldn't begin to guess.
This isn't necessarily true, between Embassy threat modifying consoles and the often-overlooked Attract Fire cruiser ability (overlooked because it doesn't increase damage output or offensive capability) it's easy to have outgoing threat be equal to someone with several times your actual output. And if the heavy DPSer is using threat reducing Embassy consoles and/or is under the secondary effect of Attract Fire, it makes it even easier for the tank to grab aggro even if he isn't the top of the DPS charts. Of course, it's still important that the tank deal a fair amount of damage but it isn't required that he be the top.
The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
Not quite.. While the point you make is true for non-tanking builds, I have come across quite a few dedicated tanking builds that can tank 70+% of the attacks even if they are with people who have 2-3x their DPS. For these people, FaW is a huge part of their ability to tank effectively. See the image for an example log of this. The person who came in 4th on DPS for the team, who did ~16% of the total team damage, took over 73% of the incoming attacks.
That way the tanks could still benefit from using the ability but I would no longer be viable for every escort, sci ship and light cruiser to just spam it all day long as they couldn't handle the aggro.
I mean I can drop a single grav well in my pathfinder and have half the map shoot at me but yet some BFAW users can nuke half the map and be ignored.
It needs to have some downsides to using it so that people don't just spam the ability till the cows come home.
As for the balance between beams and cannons well that is a whole other problem.
The problem is that the alternatives for other weapon types are decidedly less powerful and useful, even though some of them are even higher level than BFAW. (And for some weapons, there isn't even an ability similar to it. CSV might mirror BFAW in principle, but there is no equivalent that buffs all torpedo launchers on your ship for a limited time).
On the subject of FAW's competitors, BO should work in a similar fashion to SS, buffing all beams on a ship for one firing cycle each for perhaps two thirds of BO's current buff, this way all beams ships would have a single target spike alternative.
I meant that it should only be better than traditional weapon fire in a multi-target scenario. Currently it's better even under a single-target scenario, so there's no thought about whether or not it should be used, just spam it as much as you can because you'll always come out ahead.
The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.