Rock and Roll pilot ability

dragonmalice12

I stopped playing for a couple years, and have been constantly frustrated with this ability when since I've started again. I understand that other damage immunity effects can lock it out (this is absolutely ridiculous, I'll come back to it), but I've gone through EVERY trait, piece of equipment, and skill I have - nothing else lists giving any immunity. It really just feels like it's programmed to be unavailable when you need it most (kind of like that 2 second lag in evasive when you're trying to escape a core breach). It's even worse on my Jem - I go entire queues with it grayed out from the moment I warp in until I warp out. Whatever lockout is working here, it is broken.

Back to having a lockout in the first place - this is a special skill that I've dedicated my secondary active specialization tree to. Arbitrarily deciding my on demand immunity should be disabled every time some random one I have no control over happens is asinine. I've chosen to go with pilot for a little more survival and fun. Someone who picks another specialization can make full use of other immunities, and still get the benefits of their specialization - how is that balanced? How big would the uproar be if you locked out attack pattern omega and beta when alpha was used? Hey, let's make it so tac fleet can't trigger with alpha either. Hell, you don't lock out intel fleet when tac fleet is active... Nope, can't do that - we only cater to the dps crowd. Stacking every possible damage mod in the game at once is perfectly okay, but God forbid we have two momentary immunities going.

There are people in the game doing massive damage - it's bad enough I can't join a queue where I don't have to struggle to get shots in. Stop punishing me because your idea of balancing that is making everything kill the player with one shot. How about just separating the 100k dps players from the rest of us instead?

where2r1

Actually, you are using the Pilot Specialization.... which "Rock and Roll" is a part of.... you have plenty giving you immunity.

Check the following abilities that are part of Pilot: Reckless Abandon (on Evasive Maneuvers), Rock and Roll (click button), Thick of It (on activation of Turn the Other Cheek on all 4 shield facings), Scratch the Paint (on hull breaches).

https://sto.gamepedia.com/Captain_Specialization/Pilot_skills

I would test your builds by watching for the Immunity Lockout Timer....picture here:

https://i.imgur.com/SLfLAMu.jpg


I believe, the problem child is "Turn the Other Cheek" triggering "Thick of It". "Turn the Other Cheek" still counts up even if you are already on the immunity lockout. And once one lockout is through...the next one triggers immunity, again, immediately...and puts you back on lockout. So, watch for that.

"Scratch the Paint" on hull breaches....is the only one I have seen trigger while the immunity lock out timer is active. Unless they fixed that since the last time I was actually studying it very closely.

But there is no controlling WHEN or WHICH hull breach it triggers on....hence pretty useless. As the darn thing can trigger on a fighter or shuttle explosion just seconds before the main Dreadnought goes ka-boom and it won't save you then (immunity lockout).

++++++++++++++++

I am getting pretty tired of this Pilot Specialization...so I will be moving on to study Intelligence Specialization, next.

P.S. If you are using a Pilot Ship and clicking Pilot Maneuvers Buttons....THAT gives you immunity, too...which triggers the immunity lock out.

seaofsorrows

Scratch The Paint makes you immune to one warp core breach every 60 seconds. You don't pick which one, the first breach that hits you, it absorbs it then goes on 60 second cool down. It will not work in that time at all, after 60 seconds it comes back on and again, the very next breech triggers it again. There is nothing random about it and no, it doesn't lock out Rock and Roll and it can pop during lockout. I think that's because it's considered a passive ability, the lock out prevents use of active immunities.

Honestly, I don't really know what's going on with the OP, I run Pilot quite a bit and I never have RnR lock out on me. I have some other ones like Reverse Shield Polarity do it, but Rock and Roll seems to always be available. If it's grayed out the entire time then that means you have accidentally unslotted pilot as your secondary. It's easy to do, it happened to me just recently when the new Constable spec came out. When you put your first point into a new spec a little box comes up and asks you if you want to make it your active secondary, I wasn't paying attention and just clicked 'ok.' I then noticed that RnR was grayed out for me all the time and that was why.. because I no longer had Pilot as my secondary.

Rock and Roll should not be locking out on you, check your secondary spec and make sure you're still actively using Pilot.

where2r1

Well, I feel "Scratch the Paint" is random because I am not as aware of whats going on around me constantly. Definitely need practice. I am tired of watching for the one tiny "immunity" floater when something triggers it on me and looking for lockout timer for the Pilot stuff.

And I have absolutely no control of which shield facing gets hit (or not hit) to get "Thick of It" triggers for me when I need it. LOL! I really think Pilot Specialization is not for me.

OP needs to spend a bit of time in a patrol or Empire Defense or something just to watch their ship and how it is interacting with different things. Doing a few slower, less concentrated missions can tell you a lot about your build.

Simplifying things is helping me understand the puzzle of how it all goes together, too.

I keep Commando as secondary so when I am watching ship stuff or ground stuff, I know I am dealing with only one specialization at a time. I hadn't thought about Pilot being secondary.... is "Rock and Roll" on the second half of the tree? No..."Rock and Roll" is on the first half of the tree...he should still have it.

dragonmalice12

Thanks, guys - as stated, though, I'm using pilot as my SECONDARY. I do have it fully filled for the turn rate, but intel is my primary.

I have found the reason it was staying grayed out for entire matches - deploying the heavy attack craft from the Linked Command Matrix off of the Vanguard carrier. As long as the attack craft is deployed, rock and roll is locked out. There is no lockout icon - I'm guessing it's a bug and I've reported it. Still no idea why rock and roll goes gray randomly.

Yeah, I've been through every equipment, skill, and specialization window looking for problems. I wish it was just that I wasn't slotting it. It's been an issue for over a month, and I haven't been able to find a pattern. At first, I thought it was related to evasive, but they can activate together and the lockout still happens if I haven't used evasive.

In any case, you've probably said the important part - pilot is just no longer functional. I'll probably just have to shift over to something else and live without it. Bugs aside, I still feel the important part of this is that there is no reason rock and roll should ever get locked out to start with.

seaofsorrows

dragonmalice12 wrote: »

I have found the reason it was staying grayed out for entire matches - deploying the heavy attack craft from the Linked Command Matrix off of the Vanguard carrier. As long as the attack craft is deployed, rock and roll is locked out. There is no lockout icon - I'm guessing it's a bug and I've reported it. Still no idea why rock and roll goes gray randomly.

Wow, that definitely sounds like a bug.. and a pretty bad one at that. Thanks for the heads up on what it was, that's good to know. I certainly hope that gets fixed.

where2r1

Dang....Vanguard. Again.

Man, feel sorry for folks who bought into that...broken from the get go....and really, really expensive. I guess, they haven't fixed all of it, yet. Best bet is to trade notes with other players with the same ship and same problem with Rock and Roll.

I can try to do some research....but there was so much stuff released at the same time with ViL I am not sure the Wiki people have updated anything. And the Dev Blogs don't have the entire detail. I am probably gonna have to comb through bug reports from two months ago and Reddit builds posts.

Watching for the lockout timer icon on your buff bar....that is one of the key to figuring out that Rock and Roll thing. Picture is up on the other post.

where2r1

Hmmm...looking closer at Pilot Specialization: with Pilot secondary..."Scratch the Paint", "Turn the Other Cheek" OR "Thick of It" shouldn't be active at all.

I am gonna read about Intelligence Specialization...I swear if that specialization has too many immunities involved I am gonna pick another one to study. I am so sick of immunity.

starswordc

> @where2r1 said:
> Hmmm...looking closer at Pilot Specialization: with Pilot secondary..."Scratch the Paint", "Turn the Other Cheek" OR "Thick of It" shouldn't be active at all.
>
> I am gonna read about Intelligence Specialization...I swear if that specialization has too many immunities involved I am gonna pick another one to study. I am so sick of immunity.

Intelligence specialization is mostly about stealth and flanking attacks.

where2r1

> @starswordc said:
>
> Intelligence specialization is mostly about stealth and flanking attacks.

Yeah, I read that, can't wait to try it out on my BoP.

lorderaven

Yea my main gripe was also about the skill being grayed out for a whole mission. Mainly see it on the crystal map which seems to be fairly buggy all round. Don't know what they did there but hey I know maybe on that mission just reset it to an earlier save point LOL
Oh FYI Support said just post here as the answer to my problem LOL

warordos

Rock and roll(R&R) gets greyed out when using the Elachi Sheshar and Monbosh summons as well. When the Sheshar separates R&R becomes greyed out. When the Monbosh summons either the S'ateth or the Monbosh support crafts -- same thing R&R becomes greyed out. Oschu Shuttles do not impact R&R use.