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How to get the best out of your battlecloak during STF's??
tudenom
Member Posts: 75 Arc User
Hey guys
I have a science officer / Hegh'ta combo in (normal) STF's as an AOE probe/nanite/BOP buster and am having a lot of fun doing it. I play mostly in PUGs, so most of the time I scurry around filling in the gaps and taking care of the stuff other people let by them, kind of like a light cavalry unit.
I value being able to use the speed and maneuverability of the BOP to get me to where I need to go, so I can get back to defend the Kang when necessary, kill Nanites that are getting too close to generators, or destroy probes that someone else has let slip past them.
I'd like to be able to use my battle cloak to get places unmolested (which would help in all sorts of ways) but I'm having trouble doing it. It seems like the battle cloak only works half of the time and I'm being seriously punished by gates and other heavy hitters when I use it.
Does anyone have any suggestions that might help? Right now I'm only using my cloak to get a damage boost when I can and it feels like such a waste.
My BOP is a pretty standard setup with DHC's and a torp up front (I'm playing with polarons and chronitons at the moment) and turrets in the rear. I've managed to get the 3 piece Honor Guard XI set as well.
I have a science officer / Hegh'ta combo in (normal) STF's as an AOE probe/nanite/BOP buster and am having a lot of fun doing it. I play mostly in PUGs, so most of the time I scurry around filling in the gaps and taking care of the stuff other people let by them, kind of like a light cavalry unit.
I value being able to use the speed and maneuverability of the BOP to get me to where I need to go, so I can get back to defend the Kang when necessary, kill Nanites that are getting too close to generators, or destroy probes that someone else has let slip past them.
I'd like to be able to use my battle cloak to get places unmolested (which would help in all sorts of ways) but I'm having trouble doing it. It seems like the battle cloak only works half of the time and I'm being seriously punished by gates and other heavy hitters when I use it.
Does anyone have any suggestions that might help? Right now I'm only using my cloak to get a damage boost when I can and it feels like such a waste.
My BOP is a pretty standard setup with DHC's and a torp up front (I'm playing with polarons and chronitons at the moment) and turrets in the rear. I've managed to get the 3 piece Honor Guard XI set as well.
Post edited by tudenom on
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They are nerfing the borg set, so maybe another route is the way to go.
Ive found many XII purple gear on the exchange that is worth while to buy and use IMO
Is the swap to the borg set (with KHG shield) just for survivabiliy, or are there extra benefits to using the assimilated deflector over the KHG deflector? The reason I ask is I'm not having problems blowing up during normal STF's (unless I get caught while cloaking). I think when I step up to elites I'll require a new DPS focussed build anyways.
The reason why I chose the KHG set over the borg set was becasue of the bounuses that the KHG set gives me to science related powers. Since I'm flying a sci bop I have limited science consoles and the KHG defector helps with that more than the assimilated deflector. Grav Well is my bread and butter, but I compliment that with Tyken's rift and Power Syphon sometimes when we're going up against tac cubes.
I guess I could swap out the KHG engine with the assimilated engine, which combined with the assimilated console would at least give me the borg hull proc in exchange for a few power points and the hot start (which hardly matters agains the borg anyways). The hull proc would help if I get nailed while cloaking.
I have a few points in stealth and no points in threat control, I already grab too much aggro as it is so I'll leave the threat control to the cruisers
I'll try keeping more than 5 km away from active heavy hitter enemies too, see if that helps.
Vinru821 - I'll have a second look at mk XII items too and see whats available and at what price.
I agree, if the team is working the way they're supposed to be
The problem I'm running into is with PUGs, you just never know what's going to happen LOL. What starting me thinking about cloaks was an Infected run where one teammate went to the other side of the gate, blew up a nanite transformer, and then couldn't handle the spheres/probes that showed up to fix the transformer.
Once I noticed the probes/spheres going the other way I tried to get there as fast as possible to help out. I figured if I cloaked then maybe the gate would leave me alone and I could even use full impulse (he popped the farthest generator out so I had quite the distance to go). But unfortunately the gate still saw me through the cloak, so I couldn't use full impulse, and mauled me a bunch to boot. Needless to say, we failed the optional.
I guess cloaking in an STF is pretty situational and maybe I should just accept that.
This is pretty much the conclusion that I've come to
Rrezeth, Gorn Tactical, primary alt
Nari, Orion Science, secondary alt
While I do agree you dont need to use your cloak in STF's I use mine all the time whenever I can simply for the boost you get when you come out of cloak even if I only cloak for a few seconds....
Banshee
Bloodthristy
Guild - <Lords of The Dead>
LvL 60 CW-Dragon Server
Cloak is NOT a save your TRIBBLE item as it can get you killed rather easily.
I NEVER uncloak in STF's with my B'rel other than the 2 seconds to fire torpedo's. Does this mean I am worthless in an Elite SFT? Nope. I normally always get purple in the end and normally instantly pop 3 negvars heading to the Kang, take a tact cube from 90+% to 40% that is if it even survives, or instantly take a gate from 100% to under 50%.
It's about understanding when to use and when NOT to use cloak. To attack the 3 negvars when they don't fire is OK. When they are near Kang and you drop cloak for 2 seconds your TRIBBLE is had.
Get your head out of your fed thinking that a battle cloak solves everything as you have seen it does NOT. It takes the correct skills and abilities to help your teammates and do major damage using a ship that can cloak.
In STF's 99% of the time the boss is always after ME. 1 hit and my cloaked B'rel is *****! It is your responsibility to learn how to overcome this and believe me it is EZ to overcome and the best part is all you need to do this is HERE in the forums.
Well this was a usefull thread until tutbb showed up with his straw man army and stomped all over everything, it's like his reply was meant for another thread or something?
Thanks for the feedback guys!
Amazing how the blind don't see what's in front of him/her. Death is due to ignorance while Victory is Life. It's OK. While you are dead and the Kang is being destroyed you might understand. 1 day.
I can boil it down to something simple you can understand:
"Can I squeeze more out of the battlecloak so I can maneuver more freely in a normal STF"
Apparantly the answer is:
"not really, unless the conditions are just right, and you have to be specced for it"
Thanks to everyone for their replies.
From what you've said I'm guessing you're using a cloaked torpedo ship set up that sits quietly until your teammates open up a shield facing and then you unleash with all kinds of tricobalt/quantum/transphasic mine torp goodness all tac buffed up to the max. This would also work well on unshielded targets like gates and stuff. This is a fantastic use of a BOP!
But, your strategy is contingent on playing with a good team that knows what they're doing. I on the other hand am playing more of a "shepard" role trying to keep a low experience normal STF PUG on track by saving the optionals and saving the kang from getting beaten up.
I've found that the key to this is not just "MOAR DPS!". I need speed, decent striking power, and some CC. I also need to be self sufficient and not rely on support since in a normal STF PUG I'm not getting any.
I was hoping that the battlecloak could help with this, but it seems that it's just not all that useful other than getting the %15 damage bonus occasionally.
The B'rel torpedo boat can certainly benefit from a fellow team mate dropping some shields so the torpedoes could hit bare hull. But, it's not necessary.
I haven't really had any problems with the Borg spotting me when i was cloaked. Then again, I have 6 points in Stealth.