test content
Logo
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc
The most worthless ability ever
terloki
Member Posts: 287 Arc User
I'm mainly a sci captain, my first toon was a sci, my first end-game ship was the Luna, and I absolutely love playing a sci captain and laughing maniacally as I generally throw a huge wrench into my enemy's plans. So, since I plan on going through the campaign again on a new character from each faction when Legacy of Romulus comes out, I got the Rhode Island in preparation, and then stripped off the console and tried it out to see how it handles.
In short: It sucks. I mean REALLY sucks. I'm the guy who's found every ability console in the game useful to some degree, but this thing? It can't even do its job.
The premise of the Photonic Displacer is sound: Make a holographic copy of your ship to fool enemies so you can get away or heal.
The problem is what they don't tell you: As soon as you activate it all your power levels drop by 20, you can't use any speed buffs, can't heal, and can't even rebalance your shield facings. Oh sure, you get a nice little holo-decoy of your ship running around, but that's it.
I'm really disappointed here, Cryptic. What is the point of this thing? Why is it crippled so badly?
In short: It sucks. I mean REALLY sucks. I'm the guy who's found every ability console in the game useful to some degree, but this thing? It can't even do its job.
The premise of the Photonic Displacer is sound: Make a holographic copy of your ship to fool enemies so you can get away or heal.
The problem is what they don't tell you: As soon as you activate it all your power levels drop by 20, you can't use any speed buffs, can't heal, and can't even rebalance your shield facings. Oh sure, you get a nice little holo-decoy of your ship running around, but that's it.
I'm really disappointed here, Cryptic. What is the point of this thing? Why is it crippled so badly?
Admiral Katrina Tokareva - U.S.S. Cosmos, Yorktown-class Star Cruiser
Admiral Dananra Lekall - R.R.W. Teverresh, Deihu-class Warbird
General J'Kar son of K'tsulan - I.K.S. Dlahath, Vo'devwl-class Carrier
Admiral Dananra Lekall - R.R.W. Teverresh, Deihu-class Warbird
General J'Kar son of K'tsulan - I.K.S. Dlahath, Vo'devwl-class Carrier
Post edited by terloki on
0
Comments
Agreed. It gives enemies something else to shoot at while you move in and strike. I also have that Impulse Capacitance Cell / Impulse Burst equipped so by the time enemies start pounding me I'm able to use the burst and run away to heal.
Don't believe the lies in this forum. I am NOT an ARC user. I play STO on Steam or not at all.
CommanderDonatra@Capt.Sisko: ahhh is it supposed to do that?
Norvo Tigan@dontdrunkimshoot: hell ya, maybe
I agree with the OP... It is utterly worthless but then it is on a Science ship and many Science abilities were nerfed into uselessness as well.
The console DOES NOT ever work when the opponent is closer than aproximately 4 km.
Its a mask sensor effect, not a cloak. People get close, they see you.
Helping things along: put more power to engines to gain distance faster + a 100 power evasive will put a lot of distance between you and the target, and no, evasive does not break the holo decoy, neither does power to engines.
This is a force switch of target and you getting mask energy signature. Its not a cloak. if the op for is close they will see you.
This console will shine on my romulan captains because i can troll your alpha into the decoy and battle cloak right away.
umm.. you're supposed to activate your heals and buffs and stuff BEFORE you pop the decoy. Its the same thing as a battle cloak but with a lure.
/facepalm. you are really hopeless with this moaning. Seriously, you missed few threads where you didn't mention it.
Admiral Federation Tactical Corps
>Star Fleet Elite Force< Click if you are ready to boldy go where no one has gone before.
Seek not the final frontier if you fear the unknown. -Admiral Trimen Ranger
I have, I actually use it quite frequently on my low level toons. After all, what's not to like about being able to fire both fore AND aft torpedoes at the same target simultaneously? Admittedly, I'd only use it at higher levels if I knew I was going to run into a flock of B'rels while on a team, but it's still fun to use in story missions.
Admiral Dananra Lekall - R.R.W. Teverresh, Deihu-class Warbird
General J'Kar son of K'tsulan - I.K.S. Dlahath, Vo'devwl-class Carrier
Ramming Speed is awesome. Another way to run for it! Abandon Ship though is utterly useless... It is rare that you even get it to work and even if you do the resulting damage hardly does a thing.
As for this console though, you could have placed any number of better consoles in its place. Sure it can distract someone for a split second but if they are any good they will have your decoy unlocked or shredded in the blink of an eye and be back on you before you can say: "OMGWTFBBQ!"
Also anything that ignores direct targeting, FAW, Point Defense (Either of them), Lotus, Tractor Repulsers, Spread, Scatter Volley, Warp Plasma, etc... Will still rip you apart and will do so much faster once you hit this console.
As for the Emissions Seeking Torp... Oh man... That is another piece of utter garbage... I have lived through that on my B'rel so apparently it is so weak that it is not even worth considering. The most fun I ever had with that though was watching someone hit my Bortasqu' with it! LOL!... A few seconds later and they were space dust but even THEY admitted to me in a PM that seeing THAT decloak scared them LOL. It is like throwing a stone and hitting a Dragon in the head when you were after a sparrow.
Yeah, abandon ship is pretty useless...even if it were to do some decent damage, by the time you explode you're either dead anyways or have been healed up and blowing yourself into pieces has become unnecessary.
As far as bad consoles go, the Enhanced Plasma manifold from the Oberth is up there, too. It shares the global 1-minute cooldown with batteries, has a 3 minute regular cooldown (normal battery: 2 minutes), only raises power setting on shield and aux by +25 (normal Shield battery: +75 power AND +shield regeneration) while taking up a console slot.
If it would have been a consumable, like the Red Matter Capacitator, it would be ok, but slotting something worse than a 5 EC vendor battery into a console slot is just a complete waste.
cause sometimes its party time!
Tykien's Rift. Power drain is a joke. Gravity pull is a joke. Hull damage even at center is a joke. NPC ships LOL as they move away from the center without slowing down. This ability was nerfed mercilessly less than a handful of months after STO released in 2009 and has never recovered.
Or pretty much almost all SCI BOFF abilities outside of Tractor Beams.
You can also hit Ramming Speed, then hit Brace for Impact and heal yourself up fast and go slam into someone. After you have hit the button for Ramming it does not matter if you are over 50% anymore. LOL
But the Quantum Bubble with Ramming Speed on the Vesta is a fun combo.
hm terrific idea. what im thinking of I read sometime ago. not sure if it's a set bonus power or what. wish I could remember someone please help can't even remember where I read it...
cause sometimes its party time!
Abandon Ship wouldn't be so useless if my signature were an actual duty officer buff!!
cause sometimes its party time!
It's only really useful in PvE, but...
Murderball. Gravity Well + Scramble Sensors + Charged Particle Burst (+ Antiproton Sweep + Isometric Charge (if I want them down FAST) + Target Shield Subsystem 1 (if there's a heavy to take down) + Quantum Laser (or whatever that Vesta console is, also vs very heavy ships)). Works best against a mixed group, where the big ships rapidly kill off the little ones (whose shields are gutted), whose core breaches finish off the next larger ships, and those core breaches finish off the next larger ships...
It takes a bit of luck to get the chain to go all the way to wipe a group, but when it does I can take quite a large number of NPC ships down without them even even having a chance to scratch the paint on mine.
SCIENCE! :P
for pvp
use two specialty consoles in pvp - and as someone had stated earleir - impulse blast
zoom in , phtonic, impulse, drop a turret, photonic fleet, ect
on shuttles in pvp same thing
if you use a shuttle i suggest photonic, impulse and the multi console or the thoran pulse
as the greatest shuttle pvp'r, quite superior, i know
Thoron Pulse? As in what you get from the Stalker? It deals a little damage but honestly it is next to useless in my experience.
Grab the Point Defense for shuttles. That will murder any small ship near you.
Once, when I didn't realize I had in the keybind group that balances my shields.
first one i aimed for thinking of an attack shuttle build
the thoron pulse has a fast recharge - so its another weapon
- that can shoot thru the ferengi orange force field
- it can shoot while your cloaked
- it can locate cloaked ships
at any rate, rotating consoles out of ewither a shuttle or main ship i always have the photonic as the mainstay
- i mean its an escape hatch - who doesn;t want an escape hatch in pvp especially using a shuttle
oh - and one more "reasons the thoran is underrated " is that it can hide the attacker
and on a stealth build/ a shuttle that can be important
i tried for like 2 years to abandon into someon in pvp
i can do it in pve in like that tholian tartuantual or flagship
but i have not yet been able to time it to where your about dead and your going to ram someone
but it seems like in a shuttle that could be another weapon
course like i wrote, ain;t ever been able to do it
Either that or Abandon Ship. It's like opposite ends of the spectrum there. Honestly, what is its use other than for the other team to point and laugh at you?
Member since early 2011
I think I managed to blow up some BoP's with it once though.
Fleet Support is the only ability I have never been able to use right because it takes too long for the single ship to appear and by then I'm usually dead so it doesn't appear. Then the next time when I think to use it and would have survived long enough for the ship to appear, it's still on it's ridiculously long CD from when I failed to use it before.
Even when that single ship does appear it's a single ship that flies around and tries to draw fire from the ships that just finished me off. Only it despawns once I'm dead.
I swear it's the most overly nit-picky ability I've ever used.