so, in my all cannon build for my tactical escort, which of lately i cant seem to be descent (respeced a little while back) in dps most of the times. (i used to be topgun in just about any match) so i figured i needed an extra edge. because so many people are all going about how powerfull Target subsystems are i jumped that train. switched out one of my cannons for a DBB and added TSS weapons on my ship. first of ive tested on couple maps, my TSSW hits for -50 weapon power. i thougt it would be -70 or even minus 90. only 50 meh. what am i doing wrong. i probably speced bad, maybe its lack of consoles. tac consoles: +30 disruptors, sci consoles +15 emiters. (i use hazard emiters a lot)
ive tried DBB up front, ive tried single beam at the rear. switched turrets, switched cannons, switched quantums. and im realy not convinced. most encounters i still lose. i realy think i must have done something realy bad with my new spec. but im not seeing it.
reason for using TSSW is i figured i could vaporise people with my abilitys and weapon power set to 100. when i set shield power or engine power i never kill people. i tryd to do this. by hitting peoples weapon power i had hoped people would not be able to kill me. what a mistaka to maka.
First off, what TSx are you using? Shields, engines, or weapons? Spec to improve the drain is capped around ~70 for TSx II and ~90 or so for TSx III. Keys to the highest drains are maxed skill points in Sensors and Sensor Arrays, the purple Mk X Tachyon Array with the + Sensor and + Sensor Array bonuses, and of course grandfathered Multi-Spectro Scanners. For an example...my Science Officer has a -72 drain with the Astrophysicist Captain attribute, Purple Deflector, max skill points, and 2 grandfathered consoles.
im using TSS weapons III atm, was hoping to put such a weapons drain on my opponents that they would not be able to kill me, i failed. im only at -50 power atm, tested yesterday. people arent hurting by me using this skill.
i thank u bounty for your informative post. but unfortunatly ive only recently respecced and only have about 9600 merit points. so i wont be able to respec for quite some time. ugh 20000 merit points to much. this will result in me flying around gimped for at least one more week. sigh.
will have to put more points in sensors and the like i gues
edit: just want to add that i find TSS shields far better then TSS weapons.
also, bounty do u feel that u need to spent points in beams to get a better effect for the beam weapon u have to put on your ship. question goes for both dps and for the power drain. or do u think its not necesarry. i currently have no points what so ever in beamweapons, only cannons are buffed up to 9. so im losing dps by equiping that beam. which would u consider better? DBB up front in stead of a DHC, DC or QTL, or put a single beam in aft replacing one of my two turrets, or replacing a QTL. i seem to get the most bang out of replacing the aft QTL.
im using TSS weapons III atm, was hoping to put such a weapons drain on my opponents that they would not be able to kill me, i failed. im only at -50 power atm, tested yesterday. people arent hurting by me using this skill.
With a TSS III only draining -50 you're probably better off keeping whatever DHC you have up front for the far superior damage until you can respec and loadout your ship properly. Just hold onto the Bridge Officer and assign him when ready.
also, bounty do u feel that u need to spent points in beams to get a better effect for the beam weapon u have to put on your ship.
Put it this way...you can drain his weapon power and he can't really hurt you. Or you can drain his shields and attack an exposed hull and instantly kill him. Which would you rather have?
question goes for both dps and for the power drain. or do u think its not necesarry. i currently have no points what so ever in beamweapons, only cannons are buffed up to 9. so im losing dps by equiping that beam. which would u consider better? DBB up front in stead of a DHC, DC or QTL, or put a single beam in aft replacing one of my two turrets, or replacing a QTL. i seem to get the most bang out of replacing the aft QTL.
I don't know that I'd spend skill points in beam weapons if you are leaving points out of Sensors and Sensor Array. The only reason you're equipping a beam weapon at all is for the drain effect. So max out your drain effect to the full -90 or so potential. I'd go with a dual beam bank in the front for the TSx effect as it's the most damaging of the beam weapons and has a narrow arc you'll be familiar with from the cannon use. It's also always faced towards the Alpha Strike target you're going for.
I've just started using TSS Engines III. Luckily I am already heavily specced in sensors, in my skills, deflector and console to improve sensor scan.
Targeting shields is becoming quite common, and players are getting quicker at countering it either by rerouteing power or running. However a lot of people use combat impulse engines, with minimal engine power.
Targeting engines will leave them dead in the water with no where to run, and plus I also use Energy Syphon III taking another 15 power from all systems and boosting my own, and I'm all specced up in polaron weapons.
Almost every ship I target will come to a stand still, and if you're an escort not being able to turn is the worst thing which can happen to you.
TSS Shields III is almost impossible to find on the exchange, and engines has become the same way (at least on the klingon side anyway).
I've just started using TSS Engines III. Luckily I am already heavily specced in sensors, in my skills, deflector and console to improve sensor scan.
Targeting shields is becoming quite common, and players are getting quicker at countering it either by rerouteing power or running. However a lot of people use combat impulse engines, with minimal engine power.
Targeting engines will leave them dead in the water with no where to run, and plus I also use Energy Syphon III taking another 15 power from all systems and boosting my own, and I'm all specced up in polaron weapons.
Almost every ship I target will come to a stand still, and if you're an escort not being able to turn is the worst thing which can happen to you.
TSS Shields III is almost impossible to find on the exchange, and engines has become the same way (at least on the klingon side anyway).
i was doubting wich one to take, weapons or engines (couldnt find shields) and went for weapons for the sol purpose of adding in survivability. like i previuosly posted i kinda failed with this objective. thoug i do like firing it. im sure i made one of my teammates survive an alpha strike because of it. but all in all id say TSS weapons is pretty meh. shields > weapons.
another question: TSS shields CAN drop an entire shield facing at once. (u got the drain effect, u got the disabling effect) does this aply to TSS weapons; Aux and engines as wel? if i would have to gues i would say no. but id rather have some facts about it.
i was doubting wich one to take, weapons or engines (couldnt find shields) and went for weapons for the sol purpose of adding in survivability. like i previuosly posted i kinda failed with this objective. thoug i do like firing it. im sure i made one of my teammates survive an alpha strike because of it. but all in all id say TSS weapons is pretty meh. shields > weapons.
another question: TSS shields CAN drop an entire shield facing at once. (u got the drain effect, u got the disabling effect) does this aply to TSS weapons; Aux and engines as wel? if i would have to gues i would say no. but id rather have some facts about it.
cheers for the replies
The Double beam bank has a slightly higher chance of knocking systems offline comapred to the arrays. On sheilds the Double beam bank gets an extra chance to knock out all facings / or a facing over the array.
I don't remember the exact numbers right now but all TSS powers have a chance to knock out a system.
I have found TSS Engines to be the most effective in a an escort. Not many non escorts carry Emergency power to engines, and sitting still is -15 dmg resist... kinda like a free version of Attack Pattern Beta.
TSS Weapons is very very effective in PVE. I like to use TSS Weapons III (my build gives me -67 power or some number around there) It is anough power drain to cripple most PVE ships and then you can pick them apart. Its hard to notice the effect as much in a good PVP Battle.... I have been hit by a TSS Weapons in pvp though and can say it sucked I broke off and licked my wounds cause using pea shooters was not fun.
TSS Weapons III kinda feels like the old VM in PVE. In PVP I stick with engines, not being able to move or move much anyway is death, and people are starting to counter TSS sheilds a lot better.(I'm sure it will get nefted anyway
Well I use TSW 3 myself and I get decent results from it. The problem is that you are never 1 on 1 for very long, most people run with high weapon power in PVP so you can't fully drain anyone, and torpedoes are still going to do a lot of damage to an escort's paper shields, shields which are probably already down from the initial volley. If you want to make the most of draining, you should consider polaron weapons and maybe energy siphon, as well as investing in sensors and sensor array.
But, as I run an engineer in an escort, surviving 1 on 1 with another escort is pretty simple unless they kill me outright, which is always possible. I have more power to resist drains, I have better shields from RSF to protect what I do have, and with TSW and polaron weapons those shields last even longer. Yeah if I dropped people's shields instantly I would kill faster, but TSS 3 doesn't exactly grow on trees.
TSW 3 may not be the best choice for PVP, but it does make PVE trivially easy. Invest a bit more in upping your drains one way or another, and you can tank cubes, tactical cubes, bosses, whatever. One on one PVE encounters are an easy win for me with -56 TSW 3 and polaron procs. So you might not want to throw that BO away, keep TSW 3 around.
Well I use TSW 3 myself and I get decent results from it. The problem is that you are never 1 on 1 for very long, most people run with high weapon power in PVP so you can't fully drain anyone, and torpedoes are still going to do a lot of damage to an escort's paper shields, shields which are probably already down from the initial volley. If you want to make the most of draining, you should consider polaron weapons and maybe energy siphon, as well as investing in sensors and sensor array.
But, as I run an engineer in an escort, surviving 1 on 1 with another escort is pretty simple unless they kill me outright, which is always possible. I have more power to resist drains, I have better shields from RSF to protect what I do have, and with TSW and polaron weapons those shields last even longer. Yeah if I dropped people's shields instantly I would kill faster, but TSS 3 doesn't exactly grow on trees.
TSW 3 may not be the best choice for PVP, but it does make PVE trivially easy. Invest a bit more in upping your drains one way or another, and you can tank cubes, tactical cubes, bosses, whatever. One on one PVE encounters are an easy win for me with -56 TSW 3 and polaron procs. So you might not want to throw that BO away, keep TSW 3 around.
huh pve? first off the bat, this is the pvp forum. ive placed this thread in this forum for a reason. but to give you an answer for pve: i see no reason for taking TSW in pve. just hit em with JS and instead of doing reduced damage, npc wil do no damage. also, even on elite i can just nuke a cube with standard bo powers and setup. dont need anything special for killing.
pvp is another matter. to me the the counters to tss-x are not realy viable. u could state that the correct counter to TSS-x is TSS-x. reallocating power settings will require so much micro that you are going to lose the fight anyway. so when hit with TSSS u could hit your opponent with TSSS to even it up again. your micro = his micro. on that note, bounty made it very clear to me that TSSS > TSSW
the point about high weapon power i made is that even when hit with my TSW i still got nuked by my opponents even so hard that i had to go look if the target was actualy hit with the TSW. whenever i forget to go back to high weapon power i generaly can not kill anything even when buffs are stacked to the MAX. i figured TSW would bring me more survivability because of that. i was wrong. thoug i should try to boost my weaponsdrain for further maximising the effect. damn i need merritpoints
If you reread my post you see I was talking about both PVP and PVE at different points. If you can get TSS 3 great, use that, its probably the best choice for now. But I was saying if you want to make the most out of TSW 3 then you have to work harder for it.
Its not easymode like TSS 3, except in PVE where its far better than jam sensors with enough drain. Jam sensors just means that tactical cube is going to nail one of your teammates. Drain its weapons enough and it can't hurt anyone.
Personally I didn't get a BO with TSS 3, so I use TSW 3, but knowing its limitations I went with Polaron weapons to get more out of it. Energy siphon might be a good addition too to really maximize your drain potential.
But sure, if you can get TSS 3 then use it. The reality is just that it may not be an option for everyone.
pvp is another matter. to me the the counters to tss-x are not realy viable. u could state that the correct counter to TSS-x is TSS-x. reallocating power settings will require so much micro that you are going to lose the fight anyway. so when hit with TSSS u could hit your opponent with TSSS to even it up again. your micro = his micro. on that note, bounty made it very clear to me that TSSS > TSSW
That's all well and good...but want something to really blow your mind? On that Escort you can slot a TSx III and a TSx II. The first inclination is to slot two TSS versions for stacking. Ok, so you give the guy a hard time bringing his shields back. But he can run max power to shields and eat a battery and completely combat your drain. Or an EPtS. Or receive an EPS Transfer from a teammate. Tough but doable and simply forces the target to hit one or two buttons and defeat your strategy. This is becoming more and more prevalent in PvP as many more ships are trying to piggy back on the Premade-popular TSS stacking.
So what alternatives do you have? How about a TSS III and a TSE II? Hit him with the TSS III. He'll immediately go into panic mode and start adjusting power levels and eating a battery or popping a counter such as EPtS. Then you hit him with the TSE II. So you're draining him for -85 to -95 on shields and another -65 to -70 on engines. Now he has a tough choice. Stay static with shields or run away with no shields. He typically can't combat both effectively and goes completely defensive...looking for an escape route. His batteries are on cooldown so that's not an option. An EPS Transfer may or may not be available and probably won't counter that heavy of a dual drain anyway.
So you remove his one or two button combo defense and force him to stop and think. And too much thinking in battle equals death. It's about shifting strategy and appropriate counter strategy to your enemy. Place the onus on him to choose what he'll try to counter or trick him into countering the wrong strategy at the wrong time. Either way you're giving him headaches...;)
Just thought I'd put my two cents in from a cruiser perspective.
As has been pointed out, people are slowly adapting to countering TSS. I keep an EPtS 1 handy just for that. I never worry about one guy using TSS, it's when the whole team is using it that I really start sweating. But that's a moderately rare event.
The escort pilots that I truly fear are the burst damage gods like Mike or Wildman. People that easily break 400,000 damage in 5v5 cracked planet, several times I've seen them break 600,000. Glad they're in my fleet, lol. I don't know what tricks they use, but my guess is that rather than using a TSS, they use something else that boosts their damage even more. I can tell you this much, they use cannons, CRF, and I've never seen them bother with torpedos.
So my advice would be to use TSS in premades that are using it too, and then a high DPS build for when you're pugging it.
PS. If you're really unhappy with your build, you might want to consider buying a respec in the C-store for 400 points.
BTW i have a question about the TSS-x : is Tactical Team a counter to it? it should cleanse tactical debuffs. TSS-x is a tactical debuff. if it isnt i think they need to make that a hard counter. maybe one that scales. like Tac team I should cleanse TSS-xI and bring III to II and II to I. that would be nice and would give tac team meaning.
BTW i have a question about the TSS-x : is Tactical Team a counter to it? it should cleanse tactical debuffs. TSS-x is a tactical debuff. if it isnt i think they need to make that a hard counter. maybe one that scales. like Tac team I should cleanse TSS-xI and bring III to II and II to I. that would be nice and would give tac team meaning.
BTW i have a question about the TSS-x : is Tactical Team a counter to it? it should cleanse tactical debuffs. TSS-x is a tactical debuff. if it isnt i think they need to make that a hard counter. maybe one that scales. like Tac team I should cleanse TSS-xI and bring III to II and II to I. that would be nice and would give tac team meaning.
According to the big list of counters, it doesn't work on TSS. Though it should. According to all of the threads I've read on it, there is no hard counter to the shield drain.
Comments
First off, what TSx are you using? Shields, engines, or weapons? Spec to improve the drain is capped around ~70 for TSx II and ~90 or so for TSx III. Keys to the highest drains are maxed skill points in Sensors and Sensor Arrays, the purple Mk X Tachyon Array with the + Sensor and + Sensor Array bonuses, and of course grandfathered Multi-Spectro Scanners. For an example...my Science Officer has a -72 drain with the Astrophysicist Captain attribute, Purple Deflector, max skill points, and 2 grandfathered consoles.
i thank u bounty for your informative post. but unfortunatly ive only recently respecced and only have about 9600 merit points. so i wont be able to respec for quite some time. ugh 20000 merit points to much. this will result in me flying around gimped for at least one more week. sigh.
will have to put more points in sensors and the like i gues
edit: just want to add that i find TSS shields far better then TSS weapons.
also, bounty do u feel that u need to spent points in beams to get a better effect for the beam weapon u have to put on your ship. question goes for both dps and for the power drain. or do u think its not necesarry. i currently have no points what so ever in beamweapons, only cannons are buffed up to 9. so im losing dps by equiping that beam. which would u consider better? DBB up front in stead of a DHC, DC or QTL, or put a single beam in aft replacing one of my two turrets, or replacing a QTL. i seem to get the most bang out of replacing the aft QTL.
cheers mate
With a TSS III only draining -50 you're probably better off keeping whatever DHC you have up front for the far superior damage until you can respec and loadout your ship properly. Just hold onto the Bridge Officer and assign him when ready.
Put it this way...you can drain his weapon power and he can't really hurt you. Or you can drain his shields and attack an exposed hull and instantly kill him. Which would you rather have?
I don't know that I'd spend skill points in beam weapons if you are leaving points out of Sensors and Sensor Array. The only reason you're equipping a beam weapon at all is for the drain effect. So max out your drain effect to the full -90 or so potential. I'd go with a dual beam bank in the front for the TSx effect as it's the most damaging of the beam weapons and has a narrow arc you'll be familiar with from the cannon use. It's also always faced towards the Alpha Strike target you're going for.
Good luck...hope it helps.
Targeting shields is becoming quite common, and players are getting quicker at countering it either by rerouteing power or running. However a lot of people use combat impulse engines, with minimal engine power.
Targeting engines will leave them dead in the water with no where to run, and plus I also use Energy Syphon III taking another 15 power from all systems and boosting my own, and I'm all specced up in polaron weapons.
Almost every ship I target will come to a stand still, and if you're an escort not being able to turn is the worst thing which can happen to you.
TSS Shields III is almost impossible to find on the exchange, and engines has become the same way (at least on the klingon side anyway).
i was doubting wich one to take, weapons or engines (couldnt find shields) and went for weapons for the sol purpose of adding in survivability. like i previuosly posted i kinda failed with this objective. thoug i do like firing it. im sure i made one of my teammates survive an alpha strike because of it. but all in all id say TSS weapons is pretty meh. shields > weapons.
another question: TSS shields CAN drop an entire shield facing at once. (u got the drain effect, u got the disabling effect) does this aply to TSS weapons; Aux and engines as wel? if i would have to gues i would say no. but id rather have some facts about it.
cheers for the replies
The Double beam bank has a slightly higher chance of knocking systems offline comapred to the arrays. On sheilds the Double beam bank gets an extra chance to knock out all facings / or a facing over the array.
I don't remember the exact numbers right now but all TSS powers have a chance to knock out a system.
I have found TSS Engines to be the most effective in a an escort. Not many non escorts carry Emergency power to engines, and sitting still is -15 dmg resist... kinda like a free version of Attack Pattern Beta.
TSS Weapons is very very effective in PVE. I like to use TSS Weapons III (my build gives me -67 power or some number around there) It is anough power drain to cripple most PVE ships and then you can pick them apart. Its hard to notice the effect as much in a good PVP Battle.... I have been hit by a TSS Weapons in pvp though and can say it sucked
TSS Weapons III kinda feels like the old VM in PVE. In PVP I stick with engines, not being able to move or move much anyway is death, and people are starting to counter TSS sheilds a lot better.(I'm sure it will get nefted anyway
But, as I run an engineer in an escort, surviving 1 on 1 with another escort is pretty simple unless they kill me outright, which is always possible. I have more power to resist drains, I have better shields from RSF to protect what I do have, and with TSW and polaron weapons those shields last even longer. Yeah if I dropped people's shields instantly I would kill faster, but TSS 3 doesn't exactly grow on trees.
TSW 3 may not be the best choice for PVP, but it does make PVE trivially easy. Invest a bit more in upping your drains one way or another, and you can tank cubes, tactical cubes, bosses, whatever. One on one PVE encounters are an easy win for me with -56 TSW 3 and polaron procs. So you might not want to throw that BO away, keep TSW 3 around.
huh pve? first off the bat, this is the pvp forum. ive placed this thread in this forum for a reason. but to give you an answer for pve: i see no reason for taking TSW in pve. just hit em with JS and instead of doing reduced damage, npc wil do no damage. also, even on elite i can just nuke a cube with standard bo powers and setup. dont need anything special for killing.
pvp is another matter. to me the the counters to tss-x are not realy viable. u could state that the correct counter to TSS-x is TSS-x. reallocating power settings will require so much micro that you are going to lose the fight anyway. so when hit with TSSS u could hit your opponent with TSSS to even it up again. your micro = his micro. on that note, bounty made it very clear to me that TSSS > TSSW
the point about high weapon power i made is that even when hit with my TSW i still got nuked by my opponents even so hard that i had to go look if the target was actualy hit with the TSW. whenever i forget to go back to high weapon power i generaly can not kill anything even when buffs are stacked to the MAX. i figured TSW would bring me more survivability because of that. i was wrong. thoug i should try to boost my weaponsdrain for further maximising the effect. damn i need merritpoints
Its not easymode like TSS 3, except in PVE where its far better than jam sensors with enough drain. Jam sensors just means that tactical cube is going to nail one of your teammates. Drain its weapons enough and it can't hurt anyone.
Personally I didn't get a BO with TSS 3, so I use TSW 3, but knowing its limitations I went with Polaron weapons to get more out of it. Energy siphon might be a good addition too to really maximize your drain potential.
But sure, if you can get TSS 3 then use it. The reality is just that it may not be an option for everyone.
That's all well and good...but want something to really blow your mind? On that Escort you can slot a TSx III and a TSx II. The first inclination is to slot two TSS versions for stacking. Ok, so you give the guy a hard time bringing his shields back. But he can run max power to shields and eat a battery and completely combat your drain. Or an EPtS. Or receive an EPS Transfer from a teammate. Tough but doable and simply forces the target to hit one or two buttons and defeat your strategy. This is becoming more and more prevalent in PvP as many more ships are trying to piggy back on the Premade-popular TSS stacking.
So what alternatives do you have? How about a TSS III and a TSE II? Hit him with the TSS III. He'll immediately go into panic mode and start adjusting power levels and eating a battery or popping a counter such as EPtS. Then you hit him with the TSE II. So you're draining him for -85 to -95 on shields and another -65 to -70 on engines. Now he has a tough choice. Stay static with shields or run away with no shields. He typically can't combat both effectively and goes completely defensive...looking for an escape route. His batteries are on cooldown so that's not an option. An EPS Transfer may or may not be available and probably won't counter that heavy of a dual drain anyway.
So you remove his one or two button combo defense and force him to stop and think. And too much thinking in battle equals death. It's about shifting strategy and appropriate counter strategy to your enemy. Place the onus on him to choose what he'll try to counter or trick him into countering the wrong strategy at the wrong time. Either way you're giving him headaches...;)
As has been pointed out, people are slowly adapting to countering TSS. I keep an EPtS 1 handy just for that. I never worry about one guy using TSS, it's when the whole team is using it that I really start sweating. But that's a moderately rare event.
The escort pilots that I truly fear are the burst damage gods like Mike or Wildman. People that easily break 400,000 damage in 5v5 cracked planet, several times I've seen them break 600,000. Glad they're in my fleet, lol. I don't know what tricks they use, but my guess is that rather than using a TSS, they use something else that boosts their damage even more. I can tell you this much, they use cannons, CRF, and I've never seen them bother with torpedos.
So my advice would be to use TSS in premades that are using it too, and then a high DPS build for when you're pugging it.
PS. If you're really unhappy with your build, you might want to consider buying a respec in the C-store for 400 points.
No. Its a drain.
According to the big list of counters, it doesn't work on TSS. Though it should. According to all of the threads I've read on it, there is no hard counter to the shield drain.