Actually what many seem to complain about is that their Cruiser with superior mitigation values or their Sci ship with superior support and control options don't get to do as much damage as the Escort that specializes in damage.
And they'd like very much if Escorts simply exploded when enemies looked at them - with zero intent to ever tank or heal those escorts and argue against gameplay that forces them to tank or heal. :rolleyes:
Here's a thought. How about instead of the current STF death penalty timer, implement a time-limit reduction upon death. If you die, the time left on the counter is decreased by Xx seconds. This would encourage cross-healing and give tanks/support/healers a meaningful role in missions. And each time a toon dies, a flyover goes across that states "You have lost a teamate! Applying 15 second timer penalty! Keep each other alive!" or something similar.
Would be a different mechanic at least, and penalize the whole team more for letting someone die. I would also encourage increasing the value of the optional in this situation, since it would really be a team effort in that case.
After the recent 10K cruiser thread now cruiser fans are looking for another "in", another way to seem like victims. An escort tanking better than a cruiser? Are all of you mad or just carrying such a huge chip n your shoulders that its affecting your common sense?
Good grief, we KNOW cruisers are designed to tank and pay for that advantage in reduced DPS, why are we discussing this still? If you really feel that you should be in an escort move your behind into one.
Sheesh, at this rate you'll all be asking for a hard trinity soon.
And yet again you fail to realize that 10k dps cruiser sacrifices its tank/support boff abilities to merely pump out dps. Not only that, it is only possible in 'tactical' cruisers which merely tells you how idiotic the whole thing is.
Escorts do tank better than cruisers. Speed tanking makes the best resist+heal tank obsolete.
An armitage can reach 140% permanent defense rating. Do you realize just how rare it is to even get hit with such def rating? And it can be boosted even higher than 140% by using a few boff abilities that make the def rating go up for 10 seconds or so at a time.
..and this without losing a single bit of its DPS output. Do tell me what cruiser can possibly match that. Oh wait..none can.
The fact that an escort like this can simply fly circles around an ESTF tac cube and simply not get hit 95% of the times tells you a lot. Sure, a cruiser could stay and healtank the tac cube but it has very low dps while doing so (plus it will die to a 200k+ dmg supertorpedo at least once or twice). The escort oth, can heal up any damage it takes from those 5% hits and keep truckin' the pain in.
No other ship has the turn rate to keep that high def rate and keep itself in the fight (all other ships just drift in an out of 10km range a lot making any dps they can add be sporadic).
So yes, escorts can tank much, much better than cruisers when you accept the fact that 'tanking' is keeping the hate of the target upon your ship and not dying while your team pummels the target. Cruisers can only heal the incoming damage and put out miserable dps in return. Escorts simply avoid getting hit altogether and pump high damage in. Which of the two do you say is the better tank in a team?
Personally I think you all more or less have it backwards...
All weapons should have the same amount of damage pr. shot.
The diffrence should be, that:
Beams: Deal small amounts of damage over extended period of time, Little to no recharge
Dual beam: Deal just below average damage, over a slightly shorter time Little recharge
Cannons: Either go away, or moderate damage over moderate time. moderate recharge
Dual Cannons: High damage over small period. average recharge
Dual Heavy Cannons: High impact damage, over short time. Somewhat long recharge.
Now... During each discharge, each weapon should do <Value> damage, over <Value2> time, where damage is only altered by modifyers such as consoles, rarity and skills.
Then, balance all debuffs and buffs around that (Say, balance a high end Shield regen to fit the exact amount of damage a DHC can do in a single volley), and adjust time timers to fit that scenario.
Hulls and shield stay as they currently are.
That would:
Force Escorts to work in pairs or packs.
Make Cruiser heals matter
Sci Debuffs have impact.
Obviously this idea needs work, but it seems INFINITELY more reasonable than just nerfing everything (wich is pretty much what everyone here suggests).
Don't look silly... Don't call it the "Z-Store/Zen Store"...
Here's a thought. How about instead of the current STF death penalty timer, implement a time-limit reduction upon death. If you die, the time left on the counter is decreased by Xx seconds. This would encourage cross-healing and give tanks/support/healers a meaningful role in missions. And each time a toon dies, a flyover goes across that states "You have lost a teamate! Applying 15 second timer penalty! Keep each other alive!" or something similar.
Would be a different mechanic at least, and penalize the whole team more for letting someone die. I would also encourage increasing the value of the optional in this situation, since it would really be a team effort in that case.
They tried to make player deaths mean more on HSE.
> Players cried.
> They don't play the content because it's too "hard" or too "long".
> The only time I've seen anyone actively tank or heal is when they were me personally or if they were from my friends list. Other PUG cruisers or Sci ships tend to play like poor escorts and ignore their actual role.
This game's playerbase wants their Cruisers and Sci ships to do as much damage as the class of ships that only do damage.
This game's playerbase wants 250 degree arc, higher accuracy, lower damage drop off weapons to do the same damage over time as narrow arc, short range focused weapons. In other words, complete thought process failure.
The sad thing is that the escort apologists (namely those mocking anyone who DARE suggest that escorts are OP) are seldom ever seen in anything that can't do tanking and DPS at the same time.
For evidence, see the complaints pertaining to the Kumari's low shield/hull points, the fact that escort fanoys won't fly the Aquarius/Fleet Aqarius (because it can't tank) and the overwhelming popularity of the (OP) JHAS.
I will ask though, whats the point in a Tac toon being in a cruiser or something big?
All those awesome extra damage buffs (that are so easily debuffed with a little bit of practice) if you cant or dont have the weapons to do the damage?
I spent a fair amount of time tanking big ships, the fact is, you cant do the damage but have the wrong skill sets for effective healing/debuffing, so whats the point?
I also use a Kumari on a regular basis, the fact it has higher hull and shields than a bug ship. The sci one can be set very much like a patrol escort so it can be damn lethal and pretty hard to kill.
Where people go wrong with the kumari is picking the tactical one, something along the lines of 'Ooh, 5 front weapons, 5 tac consoles, awesome. I'LL BE A DAMAGE KING!!'
What they dont realise is it has virtually nothing in the way of engineer and sci BOffs, so its a glass cannon and easily popped, the other 2, not so much.
What about increasing effectiveness of beam weapons? Any cruisers around doing what they should be doing are harassing the escorts whilst your own teams escorts are finishing them off.
Simply put, instead of crying that escorts doing the roll they are designed for are OP, why not look at the very ships you are on and realise they are meant to tank, harass and heal, not to kill every TRIBBLE on the map.
They'll argue feverishly against being pushed into a role, and then complain constantly that the only role is damage.
I think you've missed my point entirely; I don't think the problem is the players, yes there are plenty who have a different view for their ship than how it works mechanically, but the issue is that there is simply no place for other roles in PvE because not enough of the missions are geared towards those other roles; the majority of missions only require damage to complete them, there's no need to draw fire or even really bother debuffing if you can just churn out scattery volley and rapid fire.
The problem isn't that people don't want to, it's that there's no reason to in PvE. People seem happy enough to do it in PvP where it can make a big difference to the battle, but in PvE high level enemies do so much damage that tanking while someone heals you still isn't proof against random 150k+ hits, and you do so little damage in the mean time that you're actually making things worse for your team as a whole than if you just switched that tank + healer for another two escorts.
Right now the best strategy is to just build for damage and then take your chances, as the damage you deal will still offset any occasional downtime from being killed.
We need enemies that require real strategy to defeat, and that deal pressure damage rather than completely random (and insanely varied) spike damage that can kill ships with one hit or that apply plasma fire that will eat your hull in far less time than your Hazard Emitters cooldown lasts for. That way tanking would be necessary to keep escorts from suffering the brunt of the damage, with healers either keeping escorts in the action, or keeping the tanks tanking. We need enemies against which drawing threat isn't simply suicide.
The problem at the heart of it though is that if you make any change that requires a mixture of ships to really do well, then a vocal majority (many current escort players) will shout it down because suddenly lining up their guns and shooting until the target is dead is no longer a valid play-style. Anything that is done will need to be done gradually, but there's no point in starting such a shift in PvE until crew damage and science abilities are fixed, as tanks with no crew aren't going to be able to do what they need to do, and science ships will continue to struggle to make a meaningful impact with their abilities on high level NPCs.
I think you've missed my point entirely; I don't think the problem is the players, yes there are plenty who have a different view for their ship than how it works mechanically, but the issue is that there is simply no place for other roles in PvE because not enough of the missions are geared towards those other roles; the majority of missions only require damage to complete them, there's no need to draw fire or even really bother debuffing if you can just churn out scattery volley and rapid fire.
The problem isn't that people don't want to, it's that there's no reason to in PvE. People seem happy enough to do it in PvP where it can make a big difference to the battle, but in PvE high level enemies do so much damage that tanking while someone heals you still isn't proof against random 150k+ hits, and you do so little damage in the mean time that you're actually making things worse for your team as a whole than if you just switched that tank + healer for another two escorts.
Right now the best strategy is to just build for damage and then take your chances, as the damage you deal will still offset any occasional downtime from being killed.
We need enemies that require real strategy to defeat, and that deal pressure damage rather than completely random (and insanely varied) spike damage that can kill ships with one hit or that apply plasma fire that will eat your hull in far less time than your Hazard Emitters cooldown lasts for. That way tanking would be necessary to keep escorts from suffering the brunt of the damage, with healers either keeping escorts in the action, or keeping the tanks tanking. We need enemies against which drawing threat isn't simply suicide.
The problem at the heart of it though is that if you make any change that requires a mixture of ships to really do well, then a vocal majority (many current escort players) will shout it down because suddenly lining up their guns and shooting until the target is dead is no longer a valid play-style. Anything that is done will need to be done gradually, but there's no point in starting such a shift in PvE until crew damage and science abilities are fixed, as tanks with no crew aren't going to be able to do what they need to do, and science ships will continue to struggle to make a meaningful impact with their abilities on high level NPCs.
I might be one of the few tacs that actually agrees with your game idea. Lets face it, PvE sucks a hairy one. Its not challenging, the enemies dumb and for the most part, sci and engi debuffs are useless, sadly, it is a DPS game on PvE.
Quite a few people that have built Tac ships for PvP just utterly demolish PvE.
I want a challenge in PvE, it might actually make the grinds for 1000s of omega marks half interesting.
Everybody is always concentrating on the overpowered escort-damage, but one of the problems with escorts is also that they have the same Shield Absorb (35%) and Shield Reg as Cruisers or Science Ships.
everybody? who said escorts are overpowered?A science officer in a sci ship will always win against a escort.So escorts which are dps ships are op because they are dps ships *facepalm*
PvE doesnt matter because thats all about dps and till they bring new PvE things that require tanking dps ships will be the best for pve.
This game's playerbase wants their Cruisers and Sci ships to do as much damage as the class of ships that only do damage.
This game's playerbase wants 250 degree arc, higher accuracy, lower damage drop off weapons to do the same damage over time as narrow arc, short range focused weapons. In other words, complete thought process failure.
I think the game's playerbase would prefer if their "not dps" ships were able to at least achieve as much dps, as the "not tanking" escorts can achieve in their tanking potential.
"Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
> The only time I've seen anyone actively tank or heal is when they were me personally or if they were from my friends list. Other PUG cruisers or Sci ships tend to play like poor escorts and ignore their actual role.
This game's playerbase wants their Cruisers and Sci ships to do as much damage as the class of ships that only do damage.
This game's playerbase wants 250 degree arc, higher accuracy, lower damage drop off weapons to do the same damage over time as narrow arc, short range focused weapons. In other words, complete thought process failure.
Lol whats Jorf doing over at panda vent? This mix of hypocrisy and insults almost reaches the master troll's levels.
Everyone knows the "glass" has been removed from the "glass cannon" as far as escorts are concerned.
Personally I still believe what all escorts need is "-50% to the effectiveness of all heals recieved."
Think that would make other ship types more appealing.
The very least that needs to happen is for escorts to lose the bonus 15% defence they get for moving at top speed.
absolutely agree with you and OP, if any ship needs a defense bonus it's the science ships they are tin foil all except the Nebula class, it's the only one that seems to hold together.
The escorts being able to tank in STF's and the naysayers just nodding their heads yes to keep it this way baffles the mind.
how is escort more tanky? science ships have access to 2 copies of tss/he and science team for healing, they can also run 2 copies of tacteam such as tt1+2 if they choose to do so, sci ships can also use photonic officer which could also boostt heir tanking potential by not having to use 2 copies of heals or emergency powers, I find sci being more tanky in many ways. put a sci ship against an escort in competition, make it be 2v1 where sci ship is being attacked by escort and the escort has a healer, when escort has the same escort and healer against him. because the sci ship can ALSO CC + when escort can only harass but the other escort alrdy has a healer so all that escort has is 1 copy of following stuff to defend himself: tss, he, epts, rsp/ats, and 2 copies of attack pattern omega, maybe another epts/epta/epte/st but none if it is a defiant when sci ship has 33% lower cooldowns on all of that and stronger heals and resistance from he/tss because of the aux power.
the one who loses in tanking in sci ship is the person who tries to fly sci ship like an escort
Say the word, it saves the world. CUUCUUMBEER!"-With slight partigen with it." Proud member or DPS-800"-We kill dem mines with our scitter turrets."
So what should we assume to evaluate mechanics? That one player is amazing and one player is terrible?
We should not get hooked on the figures too much. While they show us the idea of what is possible they cannot ensure victory.
The real trick of pvp is team makeup. I believe that the premade teams have shown us what is possible as well as necessary in pvp. We need a more pvp friendly game with greater rewards for those willing to play STO in those arenas etc.
Yea let's all fly the eaxct same ships, in the exact same class, with the exact same captain triats and skills because that would be equitable. The we can all wear the exact same uniforms because having anything different in the game wouldn't be fair.
You people are forgetting one crucial point in this debate, you can choose whatever ship you want. We already have enough shared weapons and other items. Cryptic designs different ships and weapons and it's great, it's like the real STO universe. And then because people cry foul they give them to the other faction and ruin the diversity. I wish you guys would grow up and choose a class/ship you like and STOP trying to change everyone elses ship that happens to be better than yours.
Agree with this to a degree, if sci abilities were buffed and worked like canon.
If that happened it would be a wonderful day.
Also the apologists don't realise that moderate weapons on escorts would be balanced on tactical skill buffs.
So in between the Buffs that actually add big damage like alpha, what are escorts supposed to do? Take away most of the weapons power, you take away the whole point of the escort.
By the way, a tac would have to wait anywhere from 2 minutes to 4 minutes to do any damage at all. When currently many cruisers dont really seem to be struggling in the role they were designed for in PvP. Tanking and healing.
I think the game's playerbase would prefer if their "not dps" ships were able to at least achieve as much dps, as the "not tanking" escorts can achieve in their tanking potential.
Agree with this to a degree, if sci abilities were buffed and worked like canon.
If that happened it would be a wonderful day.
Also the apologists don't realise that moderate weapons on escorts would be balanced on tactical skill buffs.
What canon? I never saw any trek show use sci abilities like what we have in STO in anything like a regular fashion. It was always a one-off.
Seriously man, try to learn to build and play properly or if you ARE some sort of uber pro and are still not happy just accept cruisers are not the ships for you. Cruisers and sci vessels are not meant to do as much dps as escorts, this is by design. If you feel the tankyness and CC/debuffing cruisers and sci vessels each respectively bring to the table then by all means SWITCH TO A DIFFERENT SHIP. See? I just solved your problem right there, you can thank me later.
Alternately you can start looking at all those great cruiser threads that have popped up lately, not the usual complaining ones, but the ones about players getting good use out of cruisers.
I am a frustrated Science player and now mainly play my tac-escort alt in STFs. Also my eng-alt and my sci-main now fly escorts too. So 3 escorts. It's sad. I want a viable variety and different gameplays to keep it interesting. But no, full-frontal-quarter-impulse-escort-permafire > all.
Well the only place extreme DPS is outright required to succeed is on Cure, when you get the final waves of super-durable Negh'vars. Everything else is just a matter of time/efficiency. Engineers and Scientists *can* complete the missions, they just stand a higher chance of losing the optional reward.
So really what we need are rewards for survivability and trickiness, instead of raw kill speed.
Optional reward 1: Murder everything within {time}
Optional reward 2: Fewer than {deaths} times team members die
Optional reward 3: ... Something science. There's all kinds of places you could go with science-based optionals, but they would require actually changing the mission.
Comments
The issue is that the role they are being pushed into is not the role that is required by content.
You've managed to completely misunderstand or simply not absorb 95% of my above post.
Read it again.
You've also missed the point, and apparently a lot of what I actually said.
Spend some time re-reading it, because I'm not typing it again.
Maybe you weren't as succinct as you think you were :eek:
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
Here's a thought. How about instead of the current STF death penalty timer, implement a time-limit reduction upon death. If you die, the time left on the counter is decreased by Xx seconds. This would encourage cross-healing and give tanks/support/healers a meaningful role in missions. And each time a toon dies, a flyover goes across that states "You have lost a teamate! Applying 15 second timer penalty! Keep each other alive!" or something similar.
Would be a different mechanic at least, and penalize the whole team more for letting someone die. I would also encourage increasing the value of the optional in this situation, since it would really be a team effort in that case.
It doesn't matter what you said, because what I said still stands.
And yet again you fail to realize that 10k dps cruiser sacrifices its tank/support boff abilities to merely pump out dps. Not only that, it is only possible in 'tactical' cruisers which merely tells you how idiotic the whole thing is.
Escorts do tank better than cruisers. Speed tanking makes the best resist+heal tank obsolete.
An armitage can reach 140% permanent defense rating. Do you realize just how rare it is to even get hit with such def rating? And it can be boosted even higher than 140% by using a few boff abilities that make the def rating go up for 10 seconds or so at a time.
..and this without losing a single bit of its DPS output. Do tell me what cruiser can possibly match that. Oh wait..none can.
The fact that an escort like this can simply fly circles around an ESTF tac cube and simply not get hit 95% of the times tells you a lot. Sure, a cruiser could stay and healtank the tac cube but it has very low dps while doing so (plus it will die to a 200k+ dmg supertorpedo at least once or twice). The escort oth, can heal up any damage it takes from those 5% hits and keep truckin' the pain in.
No other ship has the turn rate to keep that high def rate and keep itself in the fight (all other ships just drift in an out of 10km range a lot making any dps they can add be sporadic).
So yes, escorts can tank much, much better than cruisers when you accept the fact that 'tanking' is keeping the hate of the target upon your ship and not dying while your team pummels the target. Cruisers can only heal the incoming damage and put out miserable dps in return. Escorts simply avoid getting hit altogether and pump high damage in. Which of the two do you say is the better tank in a team?
The escort is a small and nimble ship, it also get a lot of hull and shields for its size, plus it is fast and carries the largest guns in game.
The cruiser is slow, lumbering, moderate guns and just a sliver more shield and hull then the escort.
Sci is sorta in between with added magic powers.
What skills you have avialable only matter if you can bring them to bear quick enough.
What should have been,
cruiser, slow, biggest guns.
sci moderate quick, smallest guns
escort, quick, moderate guns
So that you have a balance between movement and damage output and not give ever single advantage to the escort.
All weapons should have the same amount of damage pr. shot.
The diffrence should be, that:
Now... During each discharge, each weapon should do <Value> damage, over <Value2> time, where damage is only altered by modifyers such as consoles, rarity and skills.
Then, balance all debuffs and buffs around that (Say, balance a high end Shield regen to fit the exact amount of damage a DHC can do in a single volley), and adjust time timers to fit that scenario.
Hulls and shield stay as they currently are.
That would:
Obviously this idea needs work, but it seems INFINITELY more reasonable than just nerfing everything (wich is pretty much what everyone here suggests).
I was however, thorough.
They tried to make player deaths mean more on HSE.
> Players cried.
> They don't play the content because it's too "hard" or too "long".
> The only time I've seen anyone actively tank or heal is when they were me personally or if they were from my friends list. Other PUG cruisers or Sci ships tend to play like poor escorts and ignore their actual role.
This game's playerbase wants their Cruisers and Sci ships to do as much damage as the class of ships that only do damage.
This game's playerbase wants 250 degree arc, higher accuracy, lower damage drop off weapons to do the same damage over time as narrow arc, short range focused weapons. In other words, complete thought process failure.
I will ask though, whats the point in a Tac toon being in a cruiser or something big?
All those awesome extra damage buffs (that are so easily debuffed with a little bit of practice) if you cant or dont have the weapons to do the damage?
I spent a fair amount of time tanking big ships, the fact is, you cant do the damage but have the wrong skill sets for effective healing/debuffing, so whats the point?
I also use a Kumari on a regular basis, the fact it has higher hull and shields than a bug ship. The sci one can be set very much like a patrol escort so it can be damn lethal and pretty hard to kill.
Where people go wrong with the kumari is picking the tactical one, something along the lines of 'Ooh, 5 front weapons, 5 tac consoles, awesome. I'LL BE A DAMAGE KING!!'
What they dont realise is it has virtually nothing in the way of engineer and sci BOffs, so its a glass cannon and easily popped, the other 2, not so much.
What about increasing effectiveness of beam weapons? Any cruisers around doing what they should be doing are harassing the escorts whilst your own teams escorts are finishing them off.
Simply put, instead of crying that escorts doing the roll they are designed for are OP, why not look at the very ships you are on and realise they are meant to tank, harass and heal, not to kill every TRIBBLE on the map.
The problem isn't that people don't want to, it's that there's no reason to in PvE. People seem happy enough to do it in PvP where it can make a big difference to the battle, but in PvE high level enemies do so much damage that tanking while someone heals you still isn't proof against random 150k+ hits, and you do so little damage in the mean time that you're actually making things worse for your team as a whole than if you just switched that tank + healer for another two escorts.
Right now the best strategy is to just build for damage and then take your chances, as the damage you deal will still offset any occasional downtime from being killed.
We need enemies that require real strategy to defeat, and that deal pressure damage rather than completely random (and insanely varied) spike damage that can kill ships with one hit or that apply plasma fire that will eat your hull in far less time than your Hazard Emitters cooldown lasts for. That way tanking would be necessary to keep escorts from suffering the brunt of the damage, with healers either keeping escorts in the action, or keeping the tanks tanking. We need enemies against which drawing threat isn't simply suicide.
The problem at the heart of it though is that if you make any change that requires a mixture of ships to really do well, then a vocal majority (many current escort players) will shout it down because suddenly lining up their guns and shooting until the target is dead is no longer a valid play-style. Anything that is done will need to be done gradually, but there's no point in starting such a shift in PvE until crew damage and science abilities are fixed, as tanks with no crew aren't going to be able to do what they need to do, and science ships will continue to struggle to make a meaningful impact with their abilities on high level NPCs.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
I might be one of the few tacs that actually agrees with your game idea. Lets face it, PvE sucks a hairy one. Its not challenging, the enemies dumb and for the most part, sci and engi debuffs are useless, sadly, it is a DPS game on PvE.
Quite a few people that have built Tac ships for PvP just utterly demolish PvE.
I want a challenge in PvE, it might actually make the grinds for 1000s of omega marks half interesting.
everybody? who said escorts are overpowered?A science officer in a sci ship will always win against a escort.So escorts which are dps ships are op because they are dps ships *facepalm*
PvE doesnt matter because thats all about dps and till they bring new PvE things that require tanking dps ships will be the best for pve.
I think the game's playerbase would prefer if their "not dps" ships were able to at least achieve as much dps, as the "not tanking" escorts can achieve in their tanking potential.
rly?!?
a history of sto pvp: 2010 - 2011
a history of sto pvp: 2012 - 2013
absolutely agree with you and OP, if any ship needs a defense bonus it's the science ships they are tin foil all except the Nebula class, it's the only one that seems to hold together.
The escorts being able to tank in STF's and the naysayers just nodding their heads yes to keep it this way baffles the mind.
Agree with this to a degree, if sci abilities were buffed and worked like canon.
If that happened it would be a wonderful day.
Also the apologists don't realise that moderate weapons on escorts would be balanced on tactical skill buffs.
the one who loses in tanking in sci ship is the person who tries to fly sci ship like an escort
CUUCUUMBEER! "-With slight partigen with it."
Proud member or DPS-800 "-We kill dem mines with our scitter turrets."
Exactly. Thing is, pre-f2p thats exactly how escorts were. They did have moderate damage in autofire but they did great spike damage with buffs.
And their turn rate and speed allowed them to maneuver to keep hitting one shield. Back then neither NPCs nor players had tac team autobalance.
You people are forgetting one crucial point in this debate, you can choose whatever ship you want. We already have enough shared weapons and other items. Cryptic designs different ships and weapons and it's great, it's like the real STO universe. And then because people cry foul they give them to the other faction and ruin the diversity. I wish you guys would grow up and choose a class/ship you like and STOP trying to change everyone elses ship that happens to be better than yours.
So in between the Buffs that actually add big damage like alpha, what are escorts supposed to do? Take away most of the weapons power, you take away the whole point of the escort.
By the way, a tac would have to wait anywhere from 2 minutes to 4 minutes to do any damage at all. When currently many cruisers dont really seem to be struggling in the role they were designed for in PvP. Tanking and healing.
/10char
What canon? I never saw any trek show use sci abilities like what we have in STO in anything like a regular fashion. It was always a one-off.
Seriously man, try to learn to build and play properly or if you ARE some sort of uber pro and are still not happy just accept cruisers are not the ships for you. Cruisers and sci vessels are not meant to do as much dps as escorts, this is by design. If you feel the tankyness and CC/debuffing cruisers and sci vessels each respectively bring to the table then by all means SWITCH TO A DIFFERENT SHIP. See? I just solved your problem right there, you can thank me later.
Alternately you can start looking at all those great cruiser threads that have popped up lately, not the usual complaining ones, but the ones about players getting good use out of cruisers.
Of course, they're fun to fly. Oh yeah, frustrated cruiser pilots make up over half the escort pilots going by these threads
Its sad that the Engineer and Science classes can not complete an STF.
R.I.P
So really what we need are rewards for survivability and trickiness, instead of raw kill speed.
Optional reward 1: Murder everything within {time}
Optional reward 2: Fewer than {deaths} times team members die
Optional reward 3: ... Something science. There's all kinds of places you could go with science-based optionals, but they would require actually changing the mission.