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My Herd of Nerfs
nikeix
Member Posts: 3,972 Arc User
So, anyone running around the boards sampling the new discussion threads knows I'm on board with 97% or so of the changes. There's some finagling over small numbers left to be done, but really, I like where most of this is going - towards a new meta that is hopefully a little flatter and with more variations and approaches falling within 15% of the peak performers. I look forward to a serious discussion of more of the weak items that can still be brought more up to par. But everybody likes buffs, so first...
I wanted to trot out my last few major concerns. My nerfs.
Upgraded Weapons. Ship gear and consoles mostly improve in a linear fashion by gear level (I to XIV). Weapons skyrocket at grades XIII and XIV. My feeling it this was probably a desperation decision made back when the system was introduced to encourage people to invest time (and some real money) in the system right then at the expense of the long term health of the game. Here we are years later, the game is still here and seems to even be thriving, but we still have the is relic contributing heavily to runaway DPS, the gross disparity between average and peak performance, and to the absurdly low time-to-kill values in PvP that make that portion of the game a sick joke.
XIII DPS needs to be better than XII, and XIV needs to be better than XIII, but its doesn't need to be THAT MUCH better. Likewise the final Epic [Acc/Dmg] mod needs to be special for all the effort it requires, but again it hardly needs to be THAT BIG. Most of this pass has been about getting rid of "You should always" answers. What profession should I roll? "You should always go Tac!" What consoles should I get? "You should always get a Plasmonic Leech and Plasma Exploders!" What's the first thing I should upgrade? "You should always upgrade your weapons to XIV before anything else!"
I'm not advocating they be reduced to linear scaling (like the gear expected to protect you from them... oops) but there's still room for a shave while still giving players who have invested in these upgrades in the past value and advantage over players who have not.
Superior Romulan Operative. We know the tech exists to limit the number of copies of a Bridge officer space trait that can be active. Some are already unique. Others like the Krenim buffs are restricted to three copies. This abilities needs a hard cap. I suggest a limit of TWO. No only is this right at the root of the crit-and-more-crit meta, but it's so outrageous that people turned their noses up at the new T6 TOS ships and their incredibly powerful Boff seating arrangements because, and I quote, "You can't put five SRO's on them. Garbage." The source material for this game says IDIC. Hero ships celebrate diversity. Having people chase after five SRO boffs regardless of faction is the polar opposite of diversity.
They are bad for the game's play balance, they are bad for presenting the ideals of Star Trek. Cap them. Two.
Particle Manipulator. Time and again this trait has been trotted out as so powerful it makes a skill tree ultimate irrelevant. Sure you can say "you have to build your ship around it" but really it’s no hardship stacking +exotic damage to get +CrtH and CrtD on those same exotic abilities! If it keyed off of engine power or something silly, maybe, but "oh noes, I have to pile on damage to pile on damage." is the USS Brer Rabbit complaining about being hurled into the Briar Patch Nebula.
My feeling is it needs tougher scaling to get those bonuses AND the critical hit bonus needs to be capped at 40%, not 50%. It'll still be the single biggest, most ridiculous thing you can put in a space trait slot, but at least it'll stop stomping on the toes of the science skill tree ultimate...
I wanted to trot out my last few major concerns. My nerfs.
Upgraded Weapons. Ship gear and consoles mostly improve in a linear fashion by gear level (I to XIV). Weapons skyrocket at grades XIII and XIV. My feeling it this was probably a desperation decision made back when the system was introduced to encourage people to invest time (and some real money) in the system right then at the expense of the long term health of the game. Here we are years later, the game is still here and seems to even be thriving, but we still have the is relic contributing heavily to runaway DPS, the gross disparity between average and peak performance, and to the absurdly low time-to-kill values in PvP that make that portion of the game a sick joke.
XIII DPS needs to be better than XII, and XIV needs to be better than XIII, but its doesn't need to be THAT MUCH better. Likewise the final Epic [Acc/Dmg] mod needs to be special for all the effort it requires, but again it hardly needs to be THAT BIG. Most of this pass has been about getting rid of "You should always" answers. What profession should I roll? "You should always go Tac!" What consoles should I get? "You should always get a Plasmonic Leech and Plasma Exploders!" What's the first thing I should upgrade? "You should always upgrade your weapons to XIV before anything else!"
I'm not advocating they be reduced to linear scaling (like the gear expected to protect you from them... oops) but there's still room for a shave while still giving players who have invested in these upgrades in the past value and advantage over players who have not.
Superior Romulan Operative. We know the tech exists to limit the number of copies of a Bridge officer space trait that can be active. Some are already unique. Others like the Krenim buffs are restricted to three copies. This abilities needs a hard cap. I suggest a limit of TWO. No only is this right at the root of the crit-and-more-crit meta, but it's so outrageous that people turned their noses up at the new T6 TOS ships and their incredibly powerful Boff seating arrangements because, and I quote, "You can't put five SRO's on them. Garbage." The source material for this game says IDIC. Hero ships celebrate diversity. Having people chase after five SRO boffs regardless of faction is the polar opposite of diversity.
They are bad for the game's play balance, they are bad for presenting the ideals of Star Trek. Cap them. Two.
Particle Manipulator. Time and again this trait has been trotted out as so powerful it makes a skill tree ultimate irrelevant. Sure you can say "you have to build your ship around it" but really it’s no hardship stacking +exotic damage to get +CrtH and CrtD on those same exotic abilities! If it keyed off of engine power or something silly, maybe, but "oh noes, I have to pile on damage to pile on damage." is the USS Brer Rabbit complaining about being hurled into the Briar Patch Nebula.
My feeling is it needs tougher scaling to get those bonuses AND the critical hit bonus needs to be capped at 40%, not 50%. It'll still be the single biggest, most ridiculous thing you can put in a space trait slot, but at least it'll stop stomping on the toes of the science skill tree ultimate...
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Maybe a neat twist would be if Particle Manipulator provided the bonus it does now, but it would be keyed of Drain Expertise and Control Expertise instead of Exotic Particle Generator? Still not a big hardship, but at least requiring some non-straightforward investment.