Fighting the Tzenkethi (space)

antonine3258

Trying to figure these guys out still, though I haven't played a ton, and wondering if anyone had tips - shoot the small ones, shoot the big ones? I may be missing the buff icon notifications; sometimes they pop pretty easily and sometimes they seem incredibly resilient in space combat, though their damage output hasn't been spectacular.

cayleer

are these the ones that make copies of themselves then the main target is shielded and shows 'immune'?

antonine3258

cayleer wrote: »

are these the ones that make copies of themselves then the main target is shielded and shows 'immune'?

That's the Na'kuhl, these are the ones from the new queues and mission for Season 12.

nightken

kill the little ones first they die a little faster and buff the big ones I think but otherwise don't think it really matters.

peterconnorfirst

They also seem only able to buff each other in close proximity. NOT using gravity wells seems like a good idea.

lordsteve1

Attack them from the front seems the best option in my experience.

But.....be prepared to take a metric tonne of flak in the face when you do so as nearly all their guns face forwards!

I find any kind of disable/drain/stun effect on them just before you attack is an excellent way to get in/out without too much hassle. You want to be able to knock those nasty forward guns offline and then sit in front of them and open up with everything you've got.
Also, it appears they have some funky mechanic going on where their forward shields might be weaker than elsewhere? So again the front is the weakest, but also has the nastiest bite.

Going round the sides/flank seems to me to be a waste of time unless you've got something that ignores shields.

antonine3258

Man, charging face-first into the enemy without gravity welling them feels so counter-intuitive to my play style.

Though after some BZs I should note when headed in, make sure *your* forward shields stay up; the big ones love high-level torpedo spread abilities; as long as you have some deflector remaining it's not a problem, but can be crippling otherwise.

staq16

I was pleasantly surprised at how well my D4 held up against an opponent it couldn't flank. As it happens, it seems that the Tzenkethi reward focussed fire over BFAW; because of the immensely resilient flank shields, the most efficient option seems to be to go head-on with quick-kill single target attacks... rather like PVP in the old days.

Another thing which seems to work well is un-DOffed Tractor-Repulsors. This allows you to push the Tzenkethi back, keeping them in an optimum nose-to-nose angle of attack while you bash them down.

The Tzenkethi's style is very game-y but it's nice to see Cryptic trying to counter the prevailing BFAW / Grav Well + AOE metas.

peterconnorfirst

After having enough marks on 10 toons to get straight with that reputation already and that a good week after its release the following stuff I remember most out of fighting this new enemy:

- Stop shooting while interacting with hawking particles (bye bye autofire).
- Use the cover of the Thenkethi stations to deliver bombs without being shot at.
- Front side of the Thenkethi ships is made of paper. Attack them from that angle. On Elite this pays off the most!
- The Thenkethi have ships that buff each other on close proximity; Don’t help them to do just that with Gravity Wells.
- In both PvE maps you need to move around a lot so anything that ads to speed is nice (Emergency power to Engines, Pilot Team, Pilot Maneuvers, Strategic Maneuvering ec… there is really something for everybody here)
- On both maps you wish the Tzenkethi to be somewhere else. Either closer to the black hole or farther away from the station. The boff power to make this wish come true is called Tractor Beam Repuslors.

My friends and I started playing the new maps on elite, even in partial pugs. The mark reward is substantial and when 3 good peeps are in a team the whole thing gets fairly doable. Since we intend to grind those maps in the future in light of a good effort/reward ratio I just make some quick boff stations modifications during the waiting phase the beginning of those matches on my builds.

On my my main for example I change from my usual setup to this Tzenkethi mode.

No black magic, just 2-3 boff powers switched and I'm good to go.

e30ernest

There are a lot of things you can learn from @spencerb96 s solo TFE run:

https://youtu.be/_PancP55f20

He goes through his setup for the run at the end too. It's not an uber high DPS ship, but you only have to take out select enemies anyway.

antonine3258

Temp immunity is really good for the bombs (similar to closing temporal portals on Battle of Procyon V) on the Front mission.

I've found gravity fairly straightforward so far. The biggest trick is the narrower window for particles on the 3rd station.