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Crystalline Entity - Too hard
tpalelena
Member Posts: 1 Arc User
I have been noticing that while the Tholians got quite strong shields, their attacks are also weak so its balanced out. They annoy you with weapons offline shots.
The Crystalline entity has now a nice beam damage, but it also loves to destroy your projectiles... could it get a prefernce for attacking players, not tricobalt devices?
But the one thing that makes it too hard is the Large Crystal fragment spam.
These hard to see, hard to target things fly at your ship too fast, and they are very hard to take down, especially if they swarm you. They also deal a ludicrous amount of damage that completely ignores shields.
This is the problem. I don't mind powerful elite tholians, or the Entity hitting hard. But these shards are annoying, hard to see, too hard to bring down.
I noticed they go for the highest damage dealer.. I think.
Which encourages me to just let my weapons autofire without using an enhancements, and watch youtube while the fight is in progress.
I'll have a better survival rate with that than actually doing my best to deal a lot of damage to the entity and have 6 large shards chase me.
The Crystalline entity has now a nice beam damage, but it also loves to destroy your projectiles... could it get a prefernce for attacking players, not tricobalt devices?
But the one thing that makes it too hard is the Large Crystal fragment spam.
These hard to see, hard to target things fly at your ship too fast, and they are very hard to take down, especially if they swarm you. They also deal a ludicrous amount of damage that completely ignores shields.
This is the problem. I don't mind powerful elite tholians, or the Entity hitting hard. But these shards are annoying, hard to see, too hard to bring down.
I noticed they go for the highest damage dealer.. I think.
Which encourages me to just let my weapons autofire without using an enhancements, and watch youtube while the fight is in progress.
I'll have a better survival rate with that than actually doing my best to deal a lot of damage to the entity and have 6 large shards chase me.
Let us wear Swimsuits on Foundry maps or bridges please! I would pay zen for that.
Post edited by tpalelena on
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Comments
Also, they can not be click targeted, you have to cycle tab to get them.
Just let their attacks drain shields first like every other attack.
I think as of the last update, the shards can't be clicked on when coming towards you, I've definitely found that to be the case in the last couple of runs. With everything going on, they're virtually impossible to spot, especially when something seems to be a bit funny with the targetting, the brackets don't seem to be coming on until about ~0.4km. :P
Despite this, its not 'too hard'.
They are larger than most starships and easy to see, they also aren't a danger at 9-10km range, they are however deadly if you go up close to the entity.
Bunch up with other players at the same vector and you'll have an easier time surviving and shooting down incoming shards, whether they are gunning for you or someone else.
And yes, Torp spread, scatter volley, and fire at will are your friends here.
Also, I love to see gravity wells.
These things also speed tank a lot. All you'll see is "miss miss miss miss miss miss miss miss." The only sureway to get rid of them is gravity well.
Or alpha strike, spread and scatter, and hope for the best.
Until they change the CE again, gravity well is really one of the keys to victory in the encounter.
The thing that ticks me off the most about the Tholians is that there proc rate is way too high to knock some thing off line like weapons.:mad:
Even are proc rates ant that high.
The CE is easy.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
Load up BFaW, TS or CSV as appropriate to your ship. Get weapons with [acc] or [acc]x2. Keybind your weapon BOFF abilities to your spacebar and just sit there and roll your face on the keyboard.
If it still is too hard, keep a grav well on the CE or have a Tractor Beam Repulsors handy.
weapon batteries don't help if they keep knocking you offline.
yes they help!
the event is peace of cake! it should be harder...
"There is a point beyond which there is no return. That point must be reached." - Kafka
[sigpic][/sigpic]
i know how you feel on the subject, but the shard spam and tholians are not my annoyance though, its everytime i am in range i keep getting a hit to my shields from the CE itself and i spend more time shield equalizing and healing then i can keep up with attacking the CE and each hit takes between half anf 3/4 of my shield quadrant each time and about 15% of my hull each hit, that CE beam attack comes every 2-3 seconds? so within about 12 seconds without any heals i would be dead. i have never been good at micromanagement before but i can do it on a push and surprisingly well. i just times i dont want to be under constant attacks.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
E'Mc2 : Science Reman torp T'Varo, deadly annoyance :P
Kunmal: Tactical fed Klingon, ground specialist, USS Kanewaga
Ka -tet Tier 5 fleet fully completed Starbase and fleet property
-Gravity Well, Tractor Beam Repulsars, torpedo boat /w Torp spread
Escort
-Cannon Scatter Volley, Torpedo Spread
Cruiser
-FAW, circle the CE
Be sure to zoom out with your camera as well, but not too far that you can't see your own ship.
However, regardless of whether you tinker with UI settings or not, if you enter an instance where everyone is in freakin' carriers and launching fighters everywhere...
Well, good luck. :P
Tab to target, for some reason even though Ive got it switched off, it will target a tholian 8km away off screen (and that is switched off, I triple checked it to make sure), Ive gone through countless settings and incarnations of settings to sort it but it just never targets what you want. It wont let you mouse over target either, for some reason you can never get that sweet spot to lock target.
The Tholians I also agree have a way high proc rate, in any instance, not just CE.
For example, a nice easy romulan marks in the nebula, go in and attack, weapons go offline almost instantly, use a weapons battery, fire 4 shots, weapons offline again, only this time batteries are in cooldown, so you have to wait for upto 15 seconds to get them back, fire another burst, weapons offline again. Its mega frustrating how many times they can proc. Far higher than any human player can. I counted in the romulan marks run, my weapons were knocked offline 28 times, 10 times in one engagement to free a D'deridex.
Hopefully the Tholian Rep gear will let us take peoples weapons offline every 5 seconds. If they can do it, why can't we?
Tychens rift, Tachyon Beam and Energy Syphon will actually stop it generating shards or cut it down drasticly. If you have a sci Boff loaded with those you will cut down on the shard spam. Also Torpedos and kinetic damage actually increase the shard generation.
Yes, the scenario is hard if you are too flipping lazy to actually read the clues given to you in the scenario. Read the manual
Also learn to steer with your fingers and click on stuff to target them. The large shards are huge. And don't sit beside the entity as the shards will hit you right as they spawn.
And frankly the CE is quite easy if you sit at 7km or more. I know that cuts down on your lovely cannon DPS. Deal with it and spray scatter volley.
If you think you can just stand still and just fire your weapon, you might find it difficult. Try moving your ship for a change. lol:)
I think myself I am going to take my old defiant to the battle that should be fun.
i recently and completely overhauled one of my more longer standing characters in this game of 2 years from DHC Quad cannon setup with Hargh'pengs to Photon torpedo boat and even with the covariant shield, field gen, positron deflector and adjusting the boff for more survivability. it still is not enough to keep up with it.
i would just like the CE to randomize the attacks on players instead of focusing on one group of players all the time, im one of its favorite targets for punishment no matter which character i choose, regardless of threat. othertimes it doesnt hit me and i have its threat, it doesnt shoot me and sometimes i have its threat elsewhere and it shoots me. the whole thing is a bit odd.
all the times on all the enemies i run across when i pull threat, it turns around and starts attacking me as it should, not ignore it. and when i am not pulling threat it should completely ignore me. to an extent the target priorities of the CE may not be correct.
still, all this is a good chance to vent.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
The fragments are annoying though, I'd rather they were made a visual effect only as the entity takes damage, and instead have the entity fire more beams, but allocate them based on threat; give tanks something to focus on enduring to keep the heat off the escorts, while everyone contributes hazard emitters to keep the tank on top of the hull damage.
Let the Tholians apply disruption; there's no need for both Tholians and fragments.
Game Balance - Ship Size and Wingmates
Are you serious? I have to drink a large pot of coffee to prevent me from falling asleep during CE. It's downright boring.
Sure you can get yourself killed if you circle the CE at 3-5 km and fire energy weapons even when you're prompted not to because they're being absorbed.
You can sit at 9.9 km distance, lobbing torpedoes at the CE & tholians and never even have one shield facing depleted.
Spread them, volley them, its all miss, miss, survive, miss, miss miss. Elite stf cubes are easier and faster to kill
And the problem is, if they come from the entity I try to click on them. I can't. The click targets the entity.
Anyway, there is an easy fix. Just sit at 9km, and do low dps.
And then go watch a star trek episode, while autofire does the rest. That is not hard at all, true.
Also, the only problem with the Entity purple beam is that it shots down your high yield stuff.
Otherwise, it really does not do a lot of damage, even after the fix. I would be happier with a stronger beam attack and weaker shards.
Weapon batteries got a 2 minute cooldown.
Energy weapons do little damage, hence torpedoes are a good idea to use. Also, not all ships got a lot of science BO slots.
The shockwave is quite easy to survive. Just put the subspace modulator on, EMPTS, maybe hazard emitters and transfer shield strenght. Even an escort will survive it with 50% hull after shooting at it non stop.
Use torpedo boat setup with cluster, quantum, romulan hyper and harpeng.
Slab on two piece adapted maco (or simply 2-piece khg if your klingon) and guaranteed 1st place. At least until more people start using that set.
Only way to be more successful is to fly a carrier, launch pets and THEN watch the torpedo show.
I would rather put an Omega instead of a quantum, so that ambiplasma consoles are worth more.
That's an option, but i find the http://www.stowiki.org/Console_-_Tactical_-_Zero_Point_Quantum_Chamber to be more rewarding.
The Hyper is just there for filler. Cluster area damage, harpeng exotic radiation. Quantum is main damage dealer with HY and TS
perhaps reduce the Skev (skill effects visuals) by 90%??