Crystalline Catastrophe (Elite) ITS IMPOSSIBLE!

stomperx99 · June 2013

So just 5 minutes ago I played the Crystalline Catastrophe Elite, Again....

We got its health to 65% And then it all goes to TRIBBLE!

We die over and over again. and it regenerates. I know that we should stop the small fragments but good GOD do they really regenerate that much health?
My main question here is, is it possible?

voporak · June 2013

Yes.

I've beaten it two or three times. A premade group, though.

wraithshadow13 · June 2013

I accidentally got Queued for this after doubleclicking a Nukara marks event, so i figured why not. Any time i came closer than 10k, it killed me in two shots.

Every FREAKING time.....

I'm in a fleet Defiant, with the t5 Reman gear, so i'm not in the best setup up, but it's by far not bad, it works great in Elite STFs as well as any other Elite in the game, so when i can't even get into firing range without being blasted to 50% hull, i find it a little ridiculous. Especially when within a second (literally) i'm hit again instantly killing me before any heals have the chance to do anything.

Not to mention that this is WITH two of the MK XII (-th) consoles, which don't really seem to work most of the time, any of which they actually grant aggro.

lildobluth · June 2013

And this is why you fail.

I know Cryptic has spoiled you Escorts silly, but in a real MMO, all classes are vital to succeed. You don't win raids in WOW/EQ2/Rift with nothing but fighters.

Its very beatable, even in a pug. but, and its a big but. You have to actually *Gasp* PLAY LIKE A TEAM instead of DPS TRIBBLE!

Thats right. Escorts that are only spec'd DPS? They have a place, a few of them. but if thats all your group is, you will NEVER beat this fight.

You see, CE gains massive buffs the more small shards that reach him. Those buffs can ONLY be taken off by Science powers. Engineers are really good at hitting the Small shards broadsiding with their Beam Fire at Will ect.

If you only ever fly an escort, on all your characters, on all factions, on every ship at every level? You are the reason you fail.

Learn some diversity. It wont kill you to not be 'ZOMG DEEPS DEEPS DEEPS' every day.

lagunad · June 2013

Beat it today in a PvE queue group, on my second attempt.

I don't think ship or class diversity has much to do with it - any ship, sci, cruiser or escort - can slot an ensign-level science ability to remove the stacking buff.

The problem in my first, unsuccessful, group was not escorts but cruisers who I guess wanted to prove what uber tanks they were, happily parking a few km away and letting shard after shard hit them.

hasukurobi · June 2013

lildobluth wrote: »

And this is why you fail.

I know Cryptic has spoiled you Escorts silly, but in a real MMO, all classes are vital to succeed. You don't win raids in WOW/EQ2/Rift with nothing but fighters.

Its very beatable, even in a pug. but, and its a big but. You have to actually *Gasp* PLAY LIKE A TEAM instead of DPS TRIBBLE!

Thats right. Escorts that are only spec'd DPS? They have a place, a few of them. but if thats all your group is, you will NEVER beat this fight.

You see, CE gains massive buffs the more small shards that reach him. Those buffs can ONLY be taken off by Science powers. Engineers are really good at hitting the Small shards broadsiding with their Beam Fire at Will ect.

If you only ever fly an escort, on all your characters, on all factions, on every ship at every level? You are the reason you fail.

Learn some diversity. It wont kill you to not be 'ZOMG DEEPS DEEPS DEEPS' every day.

LOL... Except that most if not all Broadsider Beam Boats put out such laugh worthy damage as to not be able to actually kill those shards they are shooting... A good Torp Spread on the other hand will take care of that.

lildobluth · June 2013

Thats funny, My Engi does just fine.

It's all about knowing your fight and using the right gear for the right job. Leave your Tetryon at home, CE has no shields to go down. Phaser is useless, CE/Shards have no Subsystems to shut down. Plasma is a good choice for one.

Simple MMO basics that this game has never used before are finally starting to come into play.

robeasom · June 2013

i last played the elite shortly after it was nerfed slightly and still find it incredibly hard it didnt help that the entity sat at the respawn point and hit you before you had a chance to move. However this only happened with my Sci fed character haven't tried with my KDf maybe a warrior can take on this beast with honor

januhull · June 2013

Had an elite team fail recently, but we got so close. Had it bouncing off 21%, but the waves of shards were simply overwhelming. Just too many to repulsor away, blast away and avoid. We got swarmed, people started dropping out until it was me and one other cruiser in there.

Cruisers do fine, as long as they keep in mind that they can't bulldoze through the shards and play along the 10km line with the CE itself.

aleaic · June 2013

Had a premade out of my fleet, take it down, a few nights ago. We were dying all over the place, but we managed to do it. It's not impossible, but it takes awhile, and you need a literal elite group coordinating things, but it 'can' be done.

ddesjardins · June 2013

lagunad wrote: »

Beat it today in a PvE queue group, on my second attempt.

I don't think ship or class diversity has much to do with it - any ship, sci, cruiser or escort - can slot an ensign-level science ability to remove the stacking buff..

So true, so true.

A science ship is a must as part of the group, otherwise you will become one with the space debris.

I have beaten the CE Elite with all classes in a variety of cruisers, science ships and escorts. doing it with escort ony was a long hard slog.

eatsmart · June 2013

Beaten it 3 times on elite in pugs since the regen was fixed. Many, many fail groups though.

The shards are the key. They can be destroyed very easily once they get out of range of the entity's protection. while they're in an area approximately 7.5k from the entity you'll hit for 4-8 per shot, and outside that close to normal damage numbers. CE is tankable in an escort until around 50+ stacks of the 2% damage increase, although less is obviously far more comfortable and lets you take more risks. I've seen pug groups though where the damage stack has been going up so fast that its gone past the display cap twice.

seanaldusmagnus · June 2013

My fleet figured out how to do it easy. One ship aggro's all shards, and leads them to the edge of the map. all other ships sit within 1 km above the entity, since its firing arc does not allow it to hit you there that close. Then, just hammer away

urniv821 · June 2013

not impossible, just too many damn people that don't do the following:

AVOID THE LARGE SHARDS -
SHOOT large shards chasing others.

PuGs are to self involved with themselves and the ranking to help out a guy being chased by shards.

I think thats the only prob lol

magniacapra · June 2013

I'm more pissed off with the lack of accolades or reward for completing it... and now they're making it easy....

aexrael · June 2013

I tried to summarize the event in an easy to comprehend set up. You may find it useful.

platewearingbird · June 2013

urniv821 wrote: »

not impossible, just too many damn people that don't do the following:

AVOID THE LARGE SHARDS -
SHOOT large shards chasing others.

PuGs are to self involved with themselves and the ranking to help out a guy being chased by shards.

I think thats the only prob lol

Except in Elite where you need all damage on it at all times, no one can spare stopping to save you.

wolfpack12c · June 2013

Okay I was doing this the other day and 5 players left leaving us with only 5 the easiest way to do this is one person Aggros the shards and pulls them away an the other 4 sit on top of the crystal where it can't shoot back and TaDa you win

ashkrik23 · June 2013

Mind the shards and dps the entity while getting rid of the damage buff. Simple as that.
Tachyon, tyken's, energy siphon, or charged particle burst all do that.

baudl · June 2013

totally doable...just not farmable like certain elite stfs.

ferdzso0 · June 2013

checked quickly if this topic is from before the nerf to CE or not (well, proof again, that I give forum posts more credit than they deserve)

CE is easy and boring as hell. sure not with a pug. I mean with a pug, it is still easy and boring, it is just not going to be finished, because they
1 cant survive
2 cant deal dps

the whole cn and ce encounters are too boring to be worthy of the little reward they give. sit at 7km from CE, press spacebar, cycle your offensive capabilites, stop and move out of range when its sucking energy, start again, and hope that the others are not idiots with 1k dps rainbow builds around you.

and with the valdore console there is not even a challange to get to first place, so on romulan, you just instantly get it, on fed, you dont even care to compete, because there is no way you can match it (well atleast the one using it has to be extremely incompetent)

robeasom · June 2013

I havent done it but my brother accidently pugged it in Elite by Accident and completed it. I personally would only premade group this as Pugs are sometimes useless on elite stuff

goldendharmny · June 2013

That is the key. Pugs suck at it. It is about time they put something in the game that takes a little teamwork.

lucho80 · June 2013

magniacapra wrote: »

I'm more pissed off with the lack of accolades or reward for completing it... and now they're making it easy....

Eh, there has benn an accolade for a loooong time for getting 1st place, and the trophy looks nice. If you have the Valdore's console, get the accolade now while you still can. Overheal is getting fixed.

chookin · June 2013

delta flyer hangars have tachyon beam if you have a federation carrier in there with you. They should be able to help reduce the amount of recrystalization stacks on the crystalline entity.

dashuk2381 · June 2013

Thought this was pretty easy now, as most have figured out the trick of parking above the CE where it cant' fire and having a few people kite and tank the shards while everyone else blasts away from the safe zone.

Of course organization in a PuG in STO is beyond hilarious, so that may be leading to a lot of your frustrations. I think 90% of people playing this game don't even know there is a chat window.

aveldra · June 2013

Well that's very unfortunate, I'm sorry for anyone that pugs elite/hardmode anything in an mmo.

strataguard · June 2013

I really don't see what the issue is, it's really not that hard, granted, I fly a sci torp ship, but it's pretty easy to beat the thing so long as you don't have village idiots ramming shards. Ten, fifteen minutes, in out, and it's done.

chandlerashari · June 2013

what huh? i cant hear you over the escorts popping left and right in my engi/cruiser lol

nicha0 · June 2013

Just like the old CE, it takes some discipline to run this. No pets, no standing still getting smashed by shards. A couple of high agro cruisers or crowd control ships make this very simple. PUGs should fail elite.

The scoring is pretty messed up, the most valuable ships in the game are the ones not getting hit, the ones that get hit, heal the most and score the highest. They need to add in a major points penalty to getting hit by a shard.

gerwalk0769 · June 2013

I've been lucky enough to play in good PUGS and won all CE's after the tweak.

As a Sci I follow the old tactic of flying in circles just within range of the CE-only turning to escape and heal or to pop off GW, TR, or ES.

Crystalline Catastrophe (Elite) ITS IMPOSSIBLE!

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