Ok, full stop. If 15 million Ec mudcoin is something to balk at, you don't get to play "the performance game". Because there isn't a Captain-based buff ANYWHERE that's got more kick than just leveling up your weapons.
Those "broken universal consoles" and the trait to end all traits -- Inspiring leadership -- used to cost EIGHTY million and up. That was outside of players' casual grasp but five million? Even fifteen? If you aren't making that much money just playing this captain you're trying to tune up, you're doing it wrong. Where IS your money going then? Because Ec falls like rain.
I'm sorry. I thought we were talking about the game that IS, and not some fantasy about advancement stopping the second you hit level 60 and have a full array of purple XII's...
it's paying five to fifteen million to be as viable as others are out of the box, Nike. It's why I made the Bortasque comparison-both cases, you have to invest heavily to get your performance up to where something a peer or even someone less advanced is at without any expenditure at all.
not talking "Better than", but "Equal to at the same level of spending".
If all the other ships are using the Leech, and the Leech costs 15 mil, then you have to spend 15 mil to get the same leech everyone else already has.
That's not out of the box. The only ship that has a leech out of the box is the Nausicaan ship it comes with. And nobody's flying that at end-game. Heck, the whole problem with the leech is that it's KDF side and so the massive population disparity in Fed makes the console more expensive for feds.
Ok, full stop. If 15 million Ec mudcoin is something to balk at, you don't get to play "the performance game". Because there isn't a Captain-based buff ANYWHERE that's got more kick than just leveling up your weapons.
Those "broken universal consoles" and the trait to end all traits -- Inspiring leadership -- used to cost EIGHTY million and up. That was outside of players' casual grasp but five million? Even fifteen? If you aren't making that much money just playing this captain you're trying to tune up, you're doing it wrong. Where IS your money going then? Because Ec falls like rain.
I'm sorry. I thought we were talking about the game that IS, and not some fantasy about advancement stopping the second you hit level 60 and have a full array of purple XII's...
it's paying five to fifteen million to be as viable as others are out of the box, Nike. It's why I made the Bortasque comparison-both cases, you have to invest heavily to get your performance up to where something a peer or even someone less advanced is at without any expenditure at all.
not talking "Better than", but "Equal to at the same level of spending".
15 million EC is pocket change, really. I'm all for equality and all, but if it costs so little to be 'on par' with the Joneses, then, heck, why not?! I spent endlessly more on an average lockbox ship. In that sense I'm really with nikeix on this: if a measly 15 million feels like too much of an investment, then I can't fathom how you can even afford to upgrade your weapons.
15 million EC is pocket change, really. I'm all for equality and all, but if it costs so little to be 'on par' with the Joneses, then, heck, why not?! I spent endlessly more on an average lockbox ship. In that sense I'm really with nikeix on this: if a measly 15 million feels like too much of an investment, then I can't fathom how you can even afford to upgrade your weapons.
It's not the cost itself but cost vs. benefit. Just bought the EPS Overload trait. So far, not that impressed.
Ok, full stop. If 15 million Ec mudcoin is something to balk at, you don't get to play "the performance game". Because there isn't a Captain-based buff ANYWHERE that's got more kick than just leveling up your weapons.
Those "broken universal consoles" and the trait to end all traits -- Inspiring leadership -- used to cost EIGHTY million and up. That was outside of players' casual grasp but five million? Even fifteen? If you aren't making that much money just playing this captain you're trying to tune up, you're doing it wrong. Where IS your money going then? Because Ec falls like rain.
I'm sorry. I thought we were talking about the game that IS, and not some fantasy about advancement stopping the second you hit level 60 and have a full array of purple XII's...
it's paying five to fifteen million to be as viable as others are out of the box, Nike. It's why I made the Bortasque comparison-both cases, you have to invest heavily to get your performance up to where something a peer or even someone less advanced is at without any expenditure at all.
not talking "Better than", but "Equal to at the same level of spending".
15 million EC is pocket change, really. I'm all for equality and all, but if it costs so little to be 'on par' with the Joneses, then, heck, why not?! I spent endlessly more on an average lockbox ship. In that sense I'm really with nikeix on this: if a measly 15 million feels like too much of an investment, then I can't fathom how you can even afford to upgrade your weapons.
it costs to be raised up to the STARTING POINT of "The joneses", Meimei. The traits we're talking about are neither that powerful, or that useful, for the most part they don't 'stack' as easily as, say, Attack Pattern Alpha or the sensor-sweep thing.
simply put, the developers are really only capable of making DPS races. It's all they have time for, all they have resources to do.
this is massive spending (and for people who aren't forty-hour-grinders, it is massive) to meet MINIMUM requirements other careers get to without spending a dime.
Come to think of it, I don't disagree on any particular point. Traits really aren't all that good anyway, like you said (which comes with the advantage of not really needing to buy them).
Traits aside, the three professions fall into three roles: Tactical (DPS), Engineering (Tanking), Science (Crowd Control and Debuffs). There was a time when all three roles did very well wihout extra traits. Endgame gear was much harder to get than it is now. So was dilithium and EC.
There was also a time when Science was the least desirable role to fill. STFs were a DPS race, even back then. Engineers who wanted to tank still could. While tac captains were blowing up, there we were, still standing, still doing some sustained DPS.
Then the skill trees changed. Along with that came a change in expectations. Science captains started doing more damage with science skills. They added secondary deflectors to science ships and made those ships more desirable. This is even before buying any lockbox traits or even the extra traits you get from R&D (which is laughably easy now).
Tac captains are speccing into science because of this. Even if they don't, they're still doing more damage than Engineers. Engineering has become the least desirable class for this reason and tanking isn't required at all.
A more even playing field really needs to be brought about to make all three classes desirable. It really does. Nobody should have to spec their trees outside of their specialization if they don't want to.
Should there be wiggle room for those who do want to? Absolutely. If you're a Engineer or a Tactical captain and want to spec heavily into Science, you should be able to. But the other two trees should be just as viable right out of the box. Star Trek is about diversity. It's also about excellence in your chosen field.
Yeah. I also remember when getting dilithium was like pulling teeth. I don't see a lot of builds out there actually using Helmsman and Inspirational Leader anymore. So, if you bought it for that much and it no longer has a place in your build, was it actually worth the cost.
That being said, y'all have convinced me. Or curiosity has gotten the better of me. Either way you'll have it. I should have enough points from Arc quests to buy a captain retrain token within the next week or so. I intend to buy both of these traits, retrain my Engineer back to an Engineering spec, complete with ultimate, and see how these two traits do.
To be clear, I don't think EPS Overload is great. Or even particularly good. My Federation Main is an Engineer so as a favored child gets to field test things I might not buy for any other character in my stable. I still run it, for theme and Engineer pride, but it'll probably rotate out the next time a do a serious tuning pass.
Nadion bypass... That seems pretty good in actual play. Of course I'm comparing melts EVERYTHING (fully geared Vengeance) vs melts everything somewhat faster thanks to the shiny new trait.
Inspirational leader is beefy. But Helmsman is still to me probably the most viscerally satisfying of all the lock box traits. You can FEEL the turn rate bonus and having evasive maneuvers early and often is awesome.
Others worth mentioning:
Self modulating fire is of course apex level fun for spike builds. Worth reviewing the text if you're going shopping.
And way off in a weird little corner I'll mention Hot Pursuit as one those traits that looks dull but actually radically alters the gameplay experience. Escorts with mines that actually do their damn job is surprisingly fun. Pitch the mines out anywhere/early and often and watch them start swimming around like little sharks. dun-nun. duuun-nun.
(I also actually kind of like Volatile Plating on any ship I expect to get in there and mix it up with. Those detonations are non-trivial and do double duty sweeping the sky around you clear of any additional destructible projectiles or fighters)
I would not mind if they added a engineering specific personal player trait, which while it is slotted would give the engineer a different bonus effect based on the class of ship they are using. The idea of it is that when a engineering captain takes command of a ship he uses his knowledge of engineering to improve the functionality of that ship in it's given focus.
Huh. I actually have volatile plating. Might try to work that into my respec when I get to do it.
EPS Overload seems good on paper. I use that skill quite a bit and having a damage boost from it is nice. But there's other traits that seem to do more for my DPS. We'll see how Nadeon Bypass does when I get that one. I always found that skill to be somewhat dull and don't find myself using a whole lot. Same for Brace for Impact, though the Intel trait for that is really nice and I find myself using BFI more often.
Yeah. I also remember when getting dilithium was like pulling teeth. I don't see a lot of builds out there actually using Helmsman and Inspirational Leader anymore. So, if you bought it for that much and it no longer has a place in your build, was it actually worth the cost.
That being said, y'all have convinced me. Or curiosity has gotten the better of me. Either way you'll have it. I should have enough points from Arc quests to buy a captain retrain token within the next week or so. I intend to buy both of these traits, retrain my Engineer back to an Engineering spec, complete with ultimate, and see how these two traits do.
To be clear, I don't think EPS Overload is great. Or even particularly good. My Federation Main is an Engineer so as a favored child gets to field test things I might not buy for any other character in my stable. I still run it, for theme and Engineer pride, but it'll probably rotate out the next time a do a serious tuning pass.
Nadion bypass... That seems pretty good in actual play. Of course I'm comparing melts EVERYTHING (fully geared Vengeance) vs melts everything somewhat faster thanks to the shiny new trait.
Inspirational leader is beefy. But Helmsman is still to me probably the most viscerally satisfying of all the lock box traits. You can FEEL the turn rate bonus and having evasive maneuvers early and often is awesome.
Others worth mentioning:
Self modulating fire is of course apex level fun for spike builds. Worth reviewing the text if you're going shopping.
And way off in a weird little corner I'll mention Hot Pursuit as one those traits that looks dull but actually radically alters the gameplay experience. Escorts with mines that actually do their damn job is surprisingly fun. Pitch the mines out anywhere/early and often and watch them start swimming around like little sharks. dun-nun. duuun-nun.
(I also actually kind of like Volatile Plating on any ship I expect to get in there and mix it up with. Those detonations are non-trivial and do double duty sweeping the sky around you clear of any additional destructible projectiles or fighters)
If we're talking worthwhile Traits in general, consider also Unconventional_Tactics. Especially when used in conjuction with AHOD (to shorten the cd of Brace for Impact), that's a 15% Bonus All Damage bonus for 15 sec.
Also worth mentioning is Supercharged Weapons. Use it with like a Kelvin Photon torp (and its 4 secs cd), and watch your CrtH skyrocket.
What I'm going to try to attempt to do is make an engineering-based AOE build for my Paladin. I have the Temporal engine and weapons set and I want to see if I can't squeeze out some decent AOE DPS with that. Not top DPS, mind you, but something that lets me burn down multiple targets while still having a high hull and power levels.
Yeah, was focusing on space traits rather than ship trait slots .
(But yes, Super Charged Weapons/KT torpedo is BRUTAL and ramps up to full power in 8 seconds... +30% Damage, +4.5% Critical Chance, +20% Critical Severity)
But the broader issue is actually pretty simple in game design terms: making all three professions do the same thing reduces replayabilty.
And far, far worse serves to lock the content designers into a narrow pattern of encounters because you don't have any other kind of player except DEEPS-AND-MOAR-DEEPS.
Encounters like the Na'kuhl Red Alert had an actual place for an agro-gatherer/tank to pull the plasma cones out of the plane of the escaping freighters.
The fight at the Na'kuhl time-portal station can be DPS'd into oblivion, but if you aren't rocking overkill, endurance was the name of the game.
Days of doom calls for multiple non-DPS roles including a healer to support the final hot potato run.
Battle of Procyon V is a SNAP with one player who is a competent ninja and another who can draw fire and knows which ships must be eliminated to get rid of stealth-braking AoE. I just finished an advanced instance of that with only two players for the entire run and it was AMAZING good fun.
They still make encounters that call for non-DPS and while those scenarios may puzzle and frustrate pew-pew-and-nothing-else players, they're fun for the handful of other sorts out there. And Engineers serve those players well as they are now.
Interestingly, Nadion bypass is showing 16.66% damage bonus for me in tool tips. I think that's probably cat 2 (which would be kinda awesome) since its to everything and not just energy weapons, but I'm not sure.
Nadion Bypass is "Cat 1", and scales its damage boost with your Drain Expertise stat.
Yeah, was focusing on space traits rather than ship trait slots .
(But yes, Super Charged Weapons/KT torpedo is BRUTAL and ramps up to full power in 8 seconds... +30% Damage, +4.5% Critical Chance, +20% Critical Severity)
Interestingly, Nadion bypass is showing 16.66% damage bonus for me in tool tips. I think that's probably cat 2 (which would be kinda awesome) since its to everything and not just energy weapons, but I'm not sure.
you can say that, but it doesn't make it true. I just listed NEW scenarios coming out that call for durability or call for agro control. That's "tanking" and the Engineer has utility in those fleeting moments. And may we see more of them in the future.
You basically chose to ignore everything I said... and yet the GAME ITSELF still sides with me. You call it "an outlier" and yet everything they've done in the last year and a half has shone a continuous push for more situational awareness, more survivability, and sometimes outright healing or tanking. If it were scattered around it might be outliers but it's not, its chronologicaly one continuous push to give the game some depth 100% pew-pew does not offer.
you can say that, but it doesn't make it true. I just listed NEW scenarios coming out that call for durability or call for agro control. That's "tanking" and the Engineer has utility in those fleeting moments. And may we see more of them in the future.
You basically chose to ignore everything I said... and yet the GAME ITSELF still sides with me. You call it "an outlier" and yet everything they've done in the last year and a half has shone a continuous push for more situational awareness, more survivability, and sometimes outright healing or tanking. If it were scattered around it might be outliers but it's not, its chronologicaly one continuous push to give the game some depth 100% pew-pew does not offer.
no the outlier is an outlier because out of the missions you listed, it's the only one where overkill isn't the simplest *(achieveable) solution, number one, and number two has to do with Aggro and aggro control-just like before the skill revamp, the aggro equations don't work unless you're the most damaging thing on the board. (which an engineer simply can't be.)
I have tested this, running a Fedgineer skilled and built to be a tank, and a KDF engineer in a Bird of Prey. Nine times out of ten, (iow when it's not a premade), the BoP pulls aggro without firing a shot in every mission unless there's a spam-tactical or sci-spammer within 5K who just popped a can of whuppass.
I mean, I end up pulling aggro without firing a shot on a stealth build bird of prey, Nike.
care to explain how that works in your fantasy of game design?
And isn't exactly there the critical information: You yourself are saying a tank within 5km that would draw the aggro would have been helpful. Tha there wasn't one is not a sign that tanks are useless or irrelevant in this mission. It is a sign tanking is quite useful and people are just slow to catch up to the fact.
That lack of teamwork is hindering your efforts is not a sign that teamwork is irrelevant.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
The fact is that it is not that a tank or healer is useful or not in the content we have, but that another self sufficient high dps character in the majority of the content taking the place of that tank/healer focused character is just that much more valuable. Why have a tank/healer that deals 50-60% of the dps of another player an also needs more resources (like heals from external sources) to survive the focus of that damage for a longer period of time (thanks to the increases time to kill targets), when adding another high dps character would be just that much better for the spreading out of the dps of the enemies an the fact of them dying that much faster (which also means faster times to finish the content).
The fact is that the characters of each career can tank/heal if you spec for it, but the primary content is just not made with the idea of needing specifically a tanking/healing role in the group to finish it at the same rate as going with just dps. It would be nice to see a shift in mentality to improving the viability an rewards for using a more trinity-like set up, but that in the end using a dps focused set is still quite viable right alongside it in terms of rewards an completion times. That way the choice of going with a dps focused group setup or a more trinity-set would be more of a gameplay choice than a fact of effectiveness.
adding another high dps character would be just that much better for the spreading out of the dps of the enemies an the fact of them dying that much faster (which also means faster times to finish the content).
The above is one of the reasons why Tac captains are currently the best "tanks" in the game right now. The meta has also shifted to "threat" builds where holding aggro is essential to pushing out high DPS. The higher that DPS goes, the better that build holds "threat", improving their DPS further.
Hive Onslaught Elite used to be an Aggro-Tank's paradise as early as this time, last year. Any team that wanted to have a good run there needed at least 1 aggro-tank, and maybe a dedicated healer. Now, "good" runs in HSE are done with a full team of Tacticals. Some of the best engineers I know don't participate much in HSE runs anymore because they feel that they were dragging the team down.
Engineers (and to a lesser extent, Science captains) need their captain skills looked over and adjusted. There was a good discussion on this on Reddit a few days back. The performance gap between them and Tactical captains is widening even further. You can't really nerf the largest population on the game at this point. That ship has gone and sailed. @ruinthefun was correct in that thread, the other 2 classes need to be buffed up closer to the level of Tac captains. It's not really "powercreep" if all you are doing is moving underperforming classes closer to the current king of the hill.
It might sound weird an kinda counter abit too, but what about tieing the sub-system powers to using abilities like a resource system. Which might work like how weapon power works with firing energy weapons, in that when you use science abilities it would drain a certain amount of aux power, or when you use a shield affecting abilities (like heals) it would drain your shield power a bit, and so would make power system management more important an so also make engineering more appealing for their power management abilities.
It might sound weird an kinda counter abit too, but what about tieing the sub-system powers to using abilities like a resource system. Which might work like how weapon power works with firing energy weapons, in that when you use science abilities it would drain a certain amount of aux power, or when you use a shield affecting abilities (like heals) it would drain your shield power a bit, and so would make power system management more important an so also make engineering more appealing for their power management abilities.
I think that would TRIBBLE over non-energy builds a bit more (make FAW builds stronger) because those builds do not benefit as much from leech, and therefore do not refill subsystem powers as well.
Just an idea here, but what about changing the way Miracle Worker functions...
Instead of a 1-time bulk shield and hull heal, make it a HoT to both and also add in an additional buff either with bonus power for 15-30 sec or reduce energy costs by X% across the board for the time Miracle Worker is in effect.
Also, with the HoT element, increase the total amount healed over time to be more than what the current base for the skill is now. It could make the skill more effective than in its present state.
-AoP- Warrior's Blood (KDF Armada) / -AoP- Qu' raD qulbo'Degh / -AoP- ProjectPhoenix Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Part of the problem is that engineering captain abilities are outperformed by all of their equivalents. Here's something to think about:
Miracle Worker is outperformed by: RIF (the Samsar console), Desperate Repairs, Engineering Team III, Hazard Emitters III, Continuity, and Rally Point Marker.
Rotate Shield Frequency: Lol, this ability is outperformed in terms of utility and heals by pretty much every shield heal in the game. Even Science Team I, an ensign boff ability, does better than it.
EPS Power Transfer/Nadion Inversion: Tacs and scis both can maintain 125 power levels easily nowadays. Sure engineers are better off at power management because these abilities are "free" but as far as captain abilities go, EPSPT does not make much of a meaningful difference in combat. Engineers who are serious about doing damage will also have to use the same power boosting abilities that scis and tacs do such as leech and supremecy. An engineer is only very slightly ahead of an equally geared tac or sci in terms of power management because of the lackluster effects of these abilities. Due to the large numbers of power boosting abilities in the game, engineers are no longer unique in the advantage they used to hold in this regard.
Imo, captain abilities are supposed to be 'top tier' abilities and among the best in their specific category. For example, APA is the best damage buff in the game and Sensor Scan is the best AOE debuff in the game. This however, is not the case with engineer as currently none of their engineering captain abilities can be classified as the best in the role that they are supposed to fulfill. No matter what, captain abilities are not supposed to be sub par to consoles and traits.
Comments
If all the other ships are using the Leech, and the Leech costs 15 mil, then you have to spend 15 mil to get the same leech everyone else already has.
That's not out of the box. The only ship that has a leech out of the box is the Nausicaan ship it comes with. And nobody's flying that at end-game. Heck, the whole problem with the leech is that it's KDF side and so the massive population disparity in Fed makes the console more expensive for feds.
15 million EC is pocket change, really. I'm all for equality and all, but if it costs so little to be 'on par' with the Joneses, then, heck, why not?! I spent endlessly more on an average lockbox ship. In that sense I'm really with nikeix on this: if a measly 15 million feels like too much of an investment, then I can't fathom how you can even afford to upgrade your weapons.
It's not the cost itself but cost vs. benefit. Just bought the EPS Overload trait. So far, not that impressed.
Come to think of it, I don't disagree on any particular point.
There was also a time when Science was the least desirable role to fill. STFs were a DPS race, even back then. Engineers who wanted to tank still could. While tac captains were blowing up, there we were, still standing, still doing some sustained DPS.
Then the skill trees changed. Along with that came a change in expectations. Science captains started doing more damage with science skills. They added secondary deflectors to science ships and made those ships more desirable. This is even before buying any lockbox traits or even the extra traits you get from R&D (which is laughably easy now).
Tac captains are speccing into science because of this. Even if they don't, they're still doing more damage than Engineers. Engineering has become the least desirable class for this reason and tanking isn't required at all.
A more even playing field really needs to be brought about to make all three classes desirable. It really does. Nobody should have to spec their trees outside of their specialization if they don't want to.
Should there be wiggle room for those who do want to? Absolutely. If you're a Engineer or a Tactical captain and want to spec heavily into Science, you should be able to. But the other two trees should be just as viable right out of the box. Star Trek is about diversity. It's also about excellence in your chosen field.
To be clear, I don't think EPS Overload is great. Or even particularly good. My Federation Main is an Engineer so as a favored child gets to field test things I might not buy for any other character in my stable. I still run it, for theme and Engineer pride, but it'll probably rotate out the next time a do a serious tuning pass.
Nadion bypass... That seems pretty good in actual play. Of course I'm comparing melts EVERYTHING (fully geared Vengeance) vs melts everything somewhat faster thanks to the shiny new trait.
Inspirational leader is beefy. But Helmsman is still to me probably the most viscerally satisfying of all the lock box traits. You can FEEL the turn rate bonus and having evasive maneuvers early and often is awesome.
Others worth mentioning:
Self modulating fire is of course apex level fun for spike builds. Worth reviewing the text if you're going shopping.
And way off in a weird little corner I'll mention Hot Pursuit as one those traits that looks dull but actually radically alters the gameplay experience. Escorts with mines that actually do their damn job is surprisingly fun. Pitch the mines out anywhere/early and often and watch them start swimming around like little sharks. dun-nun. duuun-nun.
(I also actually kind of like Volatile Plating on any ship I expect to get in there and mix it up with. Those detonations are non-trivial and do double duty sweeping the sky around you clear of any additional destructible projectiles or fighters)
EPS Overload seems good on paper. I use that skill quite a bit and having a damage boost from it is nice. But there's other traits that seem to do more for my DPS. We'll see how Nadeon Bypass does when I get that one. I always found that skill to be somewhat dull and don't find myself using a whole lot. Same for Brace for Impact, though the Intel trait for that is really nice and I find myself using BFI more often.
If we're talking worthwhile Traits in general, consider also Unconventional_Tactics. Especially when used in conjuction with AHOD (to shorten the cd of Brace for Impact), that's a 15% Bonus All Damage bonus for 15 sec.
Also worth mentioning is Supercharged Weapons. Use it with like a Kelvin Photon torp (and its 4 secs cd), and watch your CrtH skyrocket.
(But yes, Super Charged Weapons/KT torpedo is BRUTAL and ramps up to full power in 8 seconds... +30% Damage, +4.5% Critical Chance, +20% Critical Severity)
But the broader issue is actually pretty simple in game design terms: making all three professions do the same thing reduces replayabilty.
And far, far worse serves to lock the content designers into a narrow pattern of encounters because you don't have any other kind of player except DEEPS-AND-MOAR-DEEPS.
- Encounters like the Na'kuhl Red Alert had an actual place for an agro-gatherer/tank to pull the plasma cones out of the plane of the escaping freighters.
- The fight at the Na'kuhl time-portal station can be DPS'd into oblivion, but if you aren't rocking overkill, endurance was the name of the game.
- Days of doom calls for multiple non-DPS roles including a healer to support the final hot potato run.
- Battle of Procyon V is a SNAP with one player who is a competent ninja and another who can draw fire and knows which ships must be eliminated to get rid of stealth-braking AoE. I just finished an advanced instance of that with only two players for the entire run and it was AMAZING good fun.
They still make encounters that call for non-DPS and while those scenarios may puzzle and frustrate pew-pew-and-nothing-else players, they're fun for the handful of other sorts out there. And Engineers serve those players well as they are now.Nadion Bypass is "Cat 1", and scales its damage boost with your Drain Expertise stat.
My bad.
THANK YOU, good sir. Knowledge is power!
I will strive to convey this knowledge accurately in the future.
/bow
You basically chose to ignore everything I said... and yet the GAME ITSELF still sides with me. You call it "an outlier" and yet everything they've done in the last year and a half has shone a continuous push for more situational awareness, more survivability, and sometimes outright healing or tanking. If it were scattered around it might be outliers but it's not, its chronologicaly one continuous push to give the game some depth 100% pew-pew does not offer.
And isn't exactly there the critical information: You yourself are saying a tank within 5km that would draw the aggro would have been helpful. Tha there wasn't one is not a sign that tanks are useless or irrelevant in this mission. It is a sign tanking is quite useful and people are just slow to catch up to the fact.
That lack of teamwork is hindering your efforts is not a sign that teamwork is irrelevant.
The fact is that the characters of each career can tank/heal if you spec for it, but the primary content is just not made with the idea of needing specifically a tanking/healing role in the group to finish it at the same rate as going with just dps. It would be nice to see a shift in mentality to improving the viability an rewards for using a more trinity-like set up, but that in the end using a dps focused set is still quite viable right alongside it in terms of rewards an completion times. That way the choice of going with a dps focused group setup or a more trinity-set would be more of a gameplay choice than a fact of effectiveness.
The above is one of the reasons why Tac captains are currently the best "tanks" in the game right now. The meta has also shifted to "threat" builds where holding aggro is essential to pushing out high DPS. The higher that DPS goes, the better that build holds "threat", improving their DPS further.
Hive Onslaught Elite used to be an Aggro-Tank's paradise as early as this time, last year. Any team that wanted to have a good run there needed at least 1 aggro-tank, and maybe a dedicated healer. Now, "good" runs in HSE are done with a full team of Tacticals. Some of the best engineers I know don't participate much in HSE runs anymore because they feel that they were dragging the team down.
Engineers (and to a lesser extent, Science captains) need their captain skills looked over and adjusted. There was a good discussion on this on Reddit a few days back. The performance gap between them and Tactical captains is widening even further. You can't really nerf the largest population on the game at this point. That ship has gone and sailed. @ruinthefun was correct in that thread, the other 2 classes need to be buffed up closer to the level of Tac captains. It's not really "powercreep" if all you are doing is moving underperforming classes closer to the current king of the hill.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
I think that would TRIBBLE over non-energy builds a bit more (make FAW builds stronger) because those builds do not benefit as much from leech, and therefore do not refill subsystem powers as well.
| USS Curiosity - Pathfinder | USS Rift - Eternal |
The Science Ship Build Thread - Share your Sci Ship builds here!
Instead of a 1-time bulk shield and hull heal, make it a HoT to both and also add in an additional buff either with bonus power for 15-30 sec or reduce energy costs by X% across the board for the time Miracle Worker is in effect.
Also, with the HoT element, increase the total amount healed over time to be more than what the current base for the skill is now. It could make the skill more effective than in its present state.
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Miracle Worker is outperformed by: RIF (the Samsar console), Desperate Repairs, Engineering Team III, Hazard Emitters III, Continuity, and Rally Point Marker.
Rotate Shield Frequency: Lol, this ability is outperformed in terms of utility and heals by pretty much every shield heal in the game. Even Science Team I, an ensign boff ability, does better than it.
EPS Power Transfer/Nadion Inversion: Tacs and scis both can maintain 125 power levels easily nowadays. Sure engineers are better off at power management because these abilities are "free" but as far as captain abilities go, EPSPT does not make much of a meaningful difference in combat. Engineers who are serious about doing damage will also have to use the same power boosting abilities that scis and tacs do such as leech and supremecy. An engineer is only very slightly ahead of an equally geared tac or sci in terms of power management because of the lackluster effects of these abilities. Due to the large numbers of power boosting abilities in the game, engineers are no longer unique in the advantage they used to hold in this regard.
Imo, captain abilities are supposed to be 'top tier' abilities and among the best in their specific category. For example, APA is the best damage buff in the game and Sensor Scan is the best AOE debuff in the game. This however, is not the case with engineer as currently none of their engineering captain abilities can be classified as the best in the role that they are supposed to fulfill. No matter what, captain abilities are not supposed to be sub par to consoles and traits.
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Join Date: August 29th 2010