I like this mission, all you need to do is draw one ship at a time out away from the area they hang out in. Blow it up and draw out another, if you happen to draw out to many ships then cloak and get away and try to draw one out or maybe two if you think you can handle that....
It really is very easy if you employ some strategy other then going into the thick of things thinking you can take on the whole wave yourself.
One at a time and learn to use your cloak to your advantage.:cool:
Played these last night myself. IT was challenging but didn't quite have the nerve wracking experiences mentioned here. I had heard that they'd powered down one of the Rommie story missions - was this it?
Devil's Choice got toned down.
Last Stand ... is just boring. I don't believe it got toned down. It may be slightly overtuned, but not massively so. It's just a dull encounter set. First Mission, 3 groups, 2nd mission 3 waves of 1 group, 3rd mission 3 waves of 3 groups. Just not all that interesting to deal with.
So this is a little bit of an old thread I admit, but I wanted to post here for a couple of reasons.
I am a new player, I am doing fully free to play for now, only trying the game out because I have always loved romulans and the idea of flying my own d'deridex class ship appealed to me enough to install a new game.
Now, that said, my perspective is a little different than long time players trying a new character. All I have are the free ships I have been given, bridge officers I have been handed, and mission reward gear. But I have played a lot of games and consider myself competent in general.
Even so, I thought I would look up threads about this specific mission due to how hard parts of it seemed.
I found the space part difficult, but not impossibly so. I died a few times at first as I overagroed and had two groups of ship on me in the first wave. I died once in the second wave due to innatention. I scraped through the third with no deaths. I was still in the heavy warbird, as I had not gotten 30 yet (I got it after the mission though). It definately felt like a step up in difficulty from any previous mission, but not an impossible one, and I kind of like hard missions, they force one to grow their skills, learn timing for defensive abilities, use evasive maneuvers, etc. Judging by the next mission with the D'deridex, it would have been a lot easier if I was in one. Overall it felt long, but not grindingly so.
Some hints for this part for people having trouble and coming to this thread. Target incoming plasma attacks and shuttles, they die in one hit and cause a lot of damage otherwise (a 360 degree aft gun or two helps a lot). Dont be afraid to use the singularity core regularly, either offensively to soften the ships, or defensively for a big heal. Try to keep fights distant, use reverse to keep them in the right angle a bit longer, when they are in close, they are harder to track with your weapons. For people in a D'deridex, save evasive for after they teleport, spin arnound and stomp them. Make sure to have good weapons on your aft for the times when you cant turn, the durability of the ship should more than make up for the slower turning.
But my real problem was the next step. The shuttle part. I barely felt like I was playing, rather than just flying around till I died. The shuttle has pretty much no strategic options, just fly and shoot your one shot, circle some so all the shields take a few hits. you can cloak so you arent attacked, but then your squad usually sits around waiting for you, so all you are doing is taking longer, especially considering that this part felt like it took forever (probably around 45 minutes total, and far too much of that time was spent flying back to the fight after dying).
The reason this was so annoying was that it was the very first mission using a shuttle, and was clearly way over the head of anyone in a normal shuttle. I wish I had spent to buy the 35k shuttle (but with only around 100k total to my name, I decided against it in favor of the free one, unaware of the upcoming mission).
So there is the view of a new free player of an overly hard mission. I am not going to quit the game over it, but I will dread shuttle missions in the future.
The first time I did this mission set was in my shiny new D'Deridex with gear from previous mission rewards. I had 1 plasma torp, 1 dual plasma cannon, 1 dual beam bank and 1 beam array front and 2 beam arrays and 1 cannon turret rear, mostly greens.
The first part was meh, more of the same.
The second was more interesting. After reprogramming the satellites I got stupid and sat at the base and hit FAW. Aggroed everything. After a frantic 20 or so minutes shooting everyone and trying to stay alive I finally got them all.
Then the second wave appeared and I cloaked and moseyed over to one side. Again went FAW. This time I just aggroed 1 group but the cruiser kept on dropping adds that healed it so that took a while. For the other 2 groups I did the same thing.
When the 3rd wave came in I tried something different. This time I used beam overload on 1 ship at a time. This time things went faster. By shooting only one ship I only had to fight 1 ship. The others from the group ignored me unless I shot at them so I killed all 3 groups one ship at a time.
The Cruiser was easier to handle so long as you kill the frigates that it spawns asap so they don't heal the cruiser.
The Third part was a little harder. The first 2 waves are ok but you do have to spend time keeping the big Ha'apax alive because for some strange reason they don;t seem to have a lot of heal skills available to them. Most of thier damage is due to the Elachi charge attacks.
After killing the first wave and spending time to heal all remaining ships to full health I did the second wave with me leading the wedge of defenders. Again I had to play fireman/healer keeping the big ships alive. They can easily kill Elachi on thier own but only if you keep them alive.
This is where I gained an appreciation for the sheer survivability of the D'Deridex. My Mogai would never have lasted in this kind of fleet battle.
Again finish off the wave, heal all the remaining ships then activate the last wave.
Again the warp in but this time there were 2 Dreadnaughts with the cruisers. Then the entire elachi line of battle activated thier charge attack simultaneously! :eek:
I must say that I was so surprised to see an NPC group doing something so logical and so player like that I just sat there until they all fired! All the previous groups used thier charge attacks in a random manner like all npcs before. Ended up eating something like a dozen crescents and blowing up.
I got mad and charged back after respawning. Didn't realize that the massive charge attack killed all my allies until I was surrounded and had aggroed everyone. again with the FAW :P Then all the cruisers and the 2 dreadnaughts activated thier charge attack AFTER the elachi escorts had scrambled my skills with the Viral Matrix. Dead again.
This time I cooled off, cloaked and circled around to the side where my target Dreadnaught was. Pinned it so I can easily see it and started to whittle away it's escorts and the cruiser groups screening it.
(I love how the elachi fleet used proper escort and screening tactics to keep thier dreadnaughts covered.)
When the Fed and Klingon reinforcements came in I actually squeed in delight. Here I was all alone, my fleet dead, the planet's defense militia dead and a big TRIBBLE enemy fleet headed for a Romulan planet with the intent of harming my people. The appearance of the reinforcements came as a surprise and a welcome relief.
While I was dueling with the cruiser screening the Dreadnaught (i had already killed all 4 escorts and the 2 frigates the cruiser spawned) I noticed that the Fed group kept to the edges firing broadsides and pulling the various cruiser groups away from the core of the elachi fleet. The Klingons on the other hand made a spear of ships and bulldozed thier way to the other Dreadnaught.
While the reinforcements did not win against thier enemy groups they did cause the elachi battleline to spread out and most importantly stop them from covering the Dreadnaughts with overlapping fields of fire. Even when they were repairing they kept aggro of thier respective groups making the Dreadnaughts vulnerable.
And since the mission parameters was to destroy just the target Dreadnaught, all the other ships are relevant only if they were supporting said target.
With the Klingons and Feds keeping the supporting groups away and I had already killed the screening elements I went on a 1vs1 battle with the enemy dreadnaught. The outcome was obvious.
All in all I loved this mission. The way the Elachi was coded to use thier abilities and technological advantages to the fullest and the way they coordinated thier attacks made me actually sit up and take notice. They are the only npc race that I have seen that does not act like the typical morons.
This battle is the first and only time I had to rely on actual naval tactics to succeed. (caveat, the way they respond to an attack on thier cruiser screen with only 1 cruiser group, usually the attacked group is criminal. they should at least detach 1 or 2 more cruiser groups to kill or drive away the attacker) The timing of the reinforcements made this battle so very much like the battle of DS9. The actions of the Fed and Klingon fleets made so very Star Trek.
I loved soo much that I kept replaying it until I got the 4 beam arrays 1 Dual beam bank and 1 turret in caustic plasma for my DD.
The changes they made to the Elachi in reponse to all the "IT'S TOO HARD! NERF NERF" demands kind of ruined it for me.
tl:dr - great mission. smart elachi fleet formation and tactics. good use of unique tech from elachi. felt like fighting a real pc opponent. squee on fed/klingon reinforcement.
had to use real naval tactics to win. feels like a good ST dominion war episode. replayed to outfit my DD in all caustic plasma.
NERFs killed the episode to more boring press space bar, press skill buttons, turn ship here or there.
I'm just playing this mission, and I agree that it's incredibly boring.
There are too many ships and the gameplay is not really designed for the D'deridex. Three waves of the exact same ships, that take almost an hour to defeat with "casual" gameplay? At least there should be stronger NPC ships helping you out.
Of course there could be tactics to optimize the battles. But in all seriousness, the game doesn't state them and it doesn't teach them in previous missions.
I really hope the team will touch this mission to make it less frustrating.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC] "Sometimes you have to do things that you hate, so you can survive to fight another day."
Honestly I was not having problems with this mission, but instead of a D'deridex I had a T5 Mogai with a BOFF layout for decloak alphas, then vanishing again (with Aux2SIF and either Evasive or APO running so hits while cloaking didn't much hurt). Just pick em off one by one, never hang around long enough for them to really retaliate. Didn't take TOO long, maybe 20 minutes for that whole section. I imagine you could translate something similar to the D'Deridex, though yeah that battleship is still going to be a pain when with the DD's turn rate.....liberal use of Sing powers maybe?
Whatever the ship, don't hang around for these cheating little TRIBBLE. Fight like a Romulan: cheat.
A pretty video and all, but it sort of misses some of the points made in the thread.
1. You are doing it in a warbird, most of the time complaints I read were about doing it in the D'deridex.
2. Your ship is clearly better equipped than the average player just using quest rewards such as myself. Not that it is a bad thing, but I think a lot of people just stepping into the quest are just working with the free quest reward gear they have gotten up to that point, and the difficulty is a step up from prior quests. Some of us are still learning the game on our first characters, not building an optimized ship on an alt.
3. You skipped the hardest part of the mission, go back and make me a video of flying through the shuttle part in the default free shuttle and its default equipment and I'll be suitably impressed
The problem wasnt really the overall difficulty if you have a ship thats setup properly because you have been playing for a couple years and you have hundreds of millions in EC to setup a ship. it is the issue of all the other missions before this one were reasonable in difficulty for NEW players. They gave up a learning curve and went vertical for 10 levels on that mission. Not only did it escalate in difficulty it was repetitive as well. All 3 waves were the exact same thing, not 1 small, 1 medium and last 1 large wich wouldve made the mission tolerable in its difficulty.
Another thing, those of you who have been playing for years, Do not forget that the episodes are training for new players. If normal difficulty is too much for them then it needs to be toned down. You always have the choice to increase the difficulty for yourself and throwing new players at veteran level difficulty is a good way for a company to lose potential customers.
That's a given for me. No it doesn't need to be toned down. Yes - I have been playing for sometime but I don't "Elite" my ships till I hit 50. I have 2 Fed toons, 3 Rom tons (1 Reman). I do have the 'small rom pack' but during the times I did this mission on my Rom toons, I went with the basic setup because I didn't feel the need to outfit them, nor want to take the time, EC's, etc to do so. OH! I do use what ever I pickup that's better than standard issue ;p Another thing is that there has been a lot of people complaining about this mission and the defend new romulus... I have never had any problems with these! When the first round of complaints followed LoR going live I purposely went through all the missions with my 2nd Rom Tac toon and didn't have any problems with any of them, and that was on the 2nd difficulty - "hard"? I will give that new players may not understand some things and that can and probably will make it harder for them to do such missions.
That video looks like it was done with a Valdore, and it does have an [SCap] shield! So that's an OP Ship!!! Those SCap shields are "Extreme Elite!" because they give you another way to buildup your shields! Note the icon in the hotbar: 2nd row from bottom third icon from left! I don't know/remember what that icon is at the bottom row - 7th from the left but it 'doesnt look normal to me.' "SCap" shields - search for [SCap] in the exchange and you'll see what I mean <G>
Anyway - I too remember doing this with a D'deridex ship. Given - that some things that new players may not know may make it harder... But if everyone took the time to learn some things it does in-fact make a lot of things 'easier' for you. I see and experience that many people just want to jump in and fire away, without trying to learn anything. Sure, in some games you can do that... But I know first hand that STO isn't like that and there are other games too that are not like that. One thing I had noticed the first time running this was the fact that certain types of those ships will 'beam'/'warp behind you and start firing at you from the rear. That's a possible reason why some of 'you' are dying so much. Then there are certain types of ships in this mission that fire that 'bolt' but before they do they spread that 'net' out in front of them - and that weapon I believe/remember can actually destroy your ship in one shot. Here's one thing that video does point out - do not stand toe to toe with the mobs unless it's just a single mob. I also learned first hand that you do not want to aggro more than one group at a time because that will ultimately lead to your destruction. Why? Because then you'll have like 6 or more ships firing at you and you can generally only attack a few/couple at a time. This means that your shields and hull definitely do not have enough time to repair themselves. So I learned early on to move way out and then attack one group - one ship at a time and focus on that single ship - unless one of those 'certain ships' was going to attack me; then I had to re-prioritize it as a primary target and take it out first. But I seem to remember that it did take over an hour for me on that first time, and yes I did die a few times at least, but I learned some valuable lessons from this mission. As for the defend new romulus - after it said to retreat the first time I didn't immediately go back and start that 2nd wave, I moved back just enough to heal the other Romulan Republic ships before engaging in the next fight. Why? Because that was the only help I had in that mission and I had seen the 'massive' first wave so I knew that if I didn't heal them - I could possibly be facing the next wave by myself.
So the choice is up to all of you new players... Learn a bit and you'll probably succeed at this game... Or just try to go through it without learning anything and probably fail and become frustrated and leave. Because once you hit level 50 - and start with Special Task Force (STF) missions - you'll definitely need to learn something before even going into the Elite Special Task Force missions; because the difference between the 'normal' and Elite STF's are like what you're experiencing here in this mission. And even though they're 'the same mission' the difference between normal and Elite is drastic!!!
I will note that a lot of us experienced players will go out of our way to help anyone and everyone! Also that these Forums and the Wiki are probably your two best sources for information about anything and everything related to STO.
I liked that video....yeah you can rock that mission in an advanced ship when you are a vice admiral.
And I noticed he used the drain stuff too....I liked how every power system got beyond 100 as he played....I don't know how to do that...I only have stuff that makes my weapons and shields do that.
Its funny I had two differing experiences with that missions.....one I was using the ship everyone talks about and my beam weapons took forever to kill stuff...not sure why....I think they might have had resistances to them.
Though my first time....I was using differing weapons and I went through the mission fairly fast.
SO maybe its mostly just a matter of what people are using for weapons on their ships.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
Hello again yes I am fully specced as you say but I am free to play never paid a penny to the game yet ! All that equipment I got in less than 4 weeks (been back in the game 5 weeks now) which means it is obtainable by any of you when you want it. I seriously suggest drop the default D'Deridex its a terrible ship, I deleted mine as soon as I got it. I suggest you get a Mogai run some mirror events until you level a little more and get stronger.
If people are interested I will consider making a new Rommie and record all the missions while levelling and make a series on my channel. I suppose then I can share what I do and how I get my skills and levels like I do, but it really is rather easy and anybody can do it.
I know I seem OP in that video but I am a PvPer and thats my PvP ship and setup. I ran it the first time in the standard Mogai and still remember it being as easy just took a little longer. My power levels are due in part to Plasmonic leech console and Auxiliary to Battery skill (one copy) nothing fancy attainable by all !
The skills you see and don't recognise are the tier 5 reputation skill's and my shield is a fleet shield the ship is a Fleet Mogai ! Oh and this is my main character I have others but don't play them now I have my Rommie !
As weapons I suggest you try the Plasma Disruptor Hybrids or the Caustic Plasma I levelled to 50 and used them for a while after I reached 50 great weapon's for PvE (caustic plasma). If you can afford them get hold of Nanite disruptors these 3 weapons will more than suffice until you can get rep or fleet ones !
OH! I do use what ever I pickup that's better than standard issue ;p
I will give that new players may not understand some things and that can and probably will make it harder for them to do such missions.
One thing I had noticed the first time running this was the fact that certain types of those ships will 'beam'/'warp behind you and start firing at you from the rear. That's a possible reason why some of 'you' are dying so much.
Then there are certain types of ships in this mission that fire that 'bolt' but before they do they spread that 'net' out in front of them - and that weapon I believe/remember can actually destroy your ship in one shot.
I also learned first hand that you do not want to aggro more than one group at a time because that will ultimately lead to your destruction.
Why? Because then you'll have like 6 or more ships firing at you and you can generally only attack a few/couple at a time.
But I seem to remember that it did take over an hour for me on that first time, and yes I did die a few times at least, but I learned some valuable lessons from this mission.
As for the defend new romulus - after it said to retreat the first time I didn't immediately go back and start that 2nd wave, I moved back just enough to heal the other Romulan Republic ships before engaging in the next fight. Why? Because that was the only help I had in that mission and I had seen the 'massive' first wave so I knew that if I didn't heal them - I could possibly be facing the next wave by myself.
So the choice is up to all of you new players... Learn a bit and you'll probably succeed at this game... Or just try to go through it without learning anything and probably fail and become frustrated and leave.
I will note that a lot of us experienced players will go out of our way to help anyone and everyone! Also that these Forums and the Wiki are probably your two best sources for information about anything and everything related to STO.
So the choice is 'yours.'
This is for 'new players' and for a new player to obtain some of this 'stuff' is not likely because I remember - besides having to buy batteries and things to repair the ship, I really didn't have any EC's. For me - this is a pivotal point/mission in the game - it should 'teach you' that everything's not easy. Sure it's repetitive, sure 'they've could have done it better' but thousands! Thousands have done this mission, albeit some may have skipped it; but ultimately it's up to the new players to actually try to learn some things, or at least try.
So - it's up to you as a new player. There is help here, in main chat, etc. "You" just got to put forth the effort to ask and actually want to learn and want to succeed. "We" can give you the tools - IF you ask and take them and use them. If not - you're pretty much doomed to failure.
[closed]
I don't recall having any trouble with this mission when I played and I'm quite certain it did not take me three hours. Its possible that since I bought some duty officer packs and did a lot of duty officer missions that I was just a higher level than your typical person.
Also you shouldn't need to spend any money on shield charges and you can easily earn a good amount of EC from Starbase 24.
Ok I skimmed this post, so excuse if what I am saying is already adressed. I have played this mission several times now and I think it is nerved quite a bit. I had really no problems with the final fight, the defense of New Romulus.
About the shuttle mission. This doesn't look like it is nerved. It can be tough, since the shuttle has not many options and the torpedoes from the walkers or focused fire from the enemy shuttles is a certain death.
Here are a couple of tips.
First take the upgrade shuttle, the one you can buy for about 35,000 EC. Put a beam array and a Harg'Peng torpedo on it. Take a plasma beam and a tac Boff with tac team. I find tac team the best skill for a small craft with one boff. A side note. If you are an engineer and you have that battery trait, that boost all your powers when you use one of your emergeny power skill, I suggest you slot an engineer boff with EPtS.
About the rest of your shuttle equipment. Use the stuff from your main ship. You can swap items. No need to buy or farm for extras.
The fight. Stay at the center and group the shuttle eskaders with follow me. Forget about the walkers stay at central area and wait for the incoming shuttls. Overall, try to avoid to fight enemy shuttles and a walker at the same time. As soon as you engage the enemy shuttles give the order attack my target. When you have cleared a wave regroup them with the follow me order, go back to the main central area if you have drifted of. New shuttle formations, friendly, are here to pick up.
When the first incoming waves are cleared. Go for one of the walkers. Again focus fire with attack my target. The harg'peng torpedo does good damage against the walker. Watch out, you will get focus.. If you get an new incoming wave of enemy shuttles and the walker has too much health, pull out. Go back to the central area. Most likely the enemy shuttles will chase you, but that is ok, you can fight them now on your terms.
So that is in a nuttshell the pattern. Split the enemy up, don't give them a numerical advantage. Lead your group, use them as a team. When you just fly among them, or go one your own, you will be beaten.
Finally. Use objects and buildings to hide, when your health is low. Use narrow passages if you are chased. You are a better pilot than the AI, you should.
Ok I consider myself a mid lvl player and while difficult both of these missions were doable with a lot of healing on the side in between each wave as mentioned above. I also used 3 turn accelerators to improve my turn rate. I also used as previously mentioned the caustic and harpagh torpedo to great effect. Now a lvl 50 and tried my first borg action and ouch everybody quit after the two massive ships came in to protect the queen. sorry but I am not up to doing those two solo, so I took the leaver penalty as well and left.
Ok I thought last stand is easy I did it in one try in about 5 mins? Maybe 10
Now Battle of New Rommy that is hard, I had to call in 2 level 50s to help me
Are people STILL complaining about this, even after it was nerfed silly? I did this mission in a boffless T'Liss, because as a non-gold member I can't claim promotions without being cheated and I don't presently have the ship I want to be flying.
It was easy. I started the mission off by cloaking and then doing...absolutely nothing...while the NPCs did everything for me. I went and took a nice hearty dump while waiting, then came back to find the mission had completed on its own.
So try this strategy: "Number One, you have the Bridge. I need to go take a Number Two."
the mission was impossible to finish when you start with the Mogai, you manage to kill like 1 escort before you die and that's if ya lucky.. but I quit, came back with D'deridex with 3x torpedos + 1x dual beam array on front and 1x torpedo +2x turret on aft, sorted out the ships which jumped to the rear and managed to do the whole mission without dying, but it is a very hard mission and gets boring/tedious, if you havnt done this mission yet, don't do it! not worth the time
The first time I did this mission I was supposed to be in a D'Derex. Due to chronic stubbornness I was going to stay in my purchased valdore. I died soooo may times.... OK, so I go get into my issued D'D and things get much easier, and I finished. The next time I do this I am a fresh 50 and still in TRIBBLE gear (albeit in a T'varo), but a friend needs help, so I go in. We cleaned house fast.
Now I really hate hearing my self say this but if you are having a hard time, get just 1 friend to help. You don't need a group, but just 1 other person makes a huge difference.
However, if you are ready for it just get the D'D. I honestly feel the mission was designed around being in that huge hulking tank of a ship.
Don't want to be one of those arrogant jerks with the 'aww its so easy stop whining' kind of condescending approach (I despise those people), but really with the right approach this mission becomes easy enough to flat out farm. Wrong approach......yeah thats not going to be fun. Its sad because this mission could be a great teaching tool if they gave you some hints, but instead they just drop you in it.
First, kill the frigates first. You're a Romulan with a battle cloak, and its the little flimsy frigates that make the Elachi so annoying, so make sure the little TRIBBLE have a 3-second life expectancy. For a tac ship especially you have enough firepower to simply end them in a single decloak-alpha salvo, and when those viral matricies and tactor-cluster torps go away, the remaining ships are a pretty standard fight.
Second, stay outside of 5km. Their subspace jump has to be within 5km to pop behind you, so if you stay just beyond that they'll all stay in your front sights. Alternately, use their behavior to your advantage and use a small AOE attack at close range, get them all to jump behind you at once and cluster up nicely for your bigger AOE hits.
Third for sci in particular, I've found the Elachi seem especially vulnerable to drain attacks. Using a sci ship built for draining (energy siphon x2, polarons, leech, assimilator, subsystem target), I found that hit with any 3 things at once, Elachi ships have apparently no points in Power Insulators and simply shut down. And I was only running 100 points in Flow Caps, so someone adding a couple of consoles could probably shutdown with just 2 abilities. Not fair, but fun to turn the tables on the TRIBBLE.
Fourth, just in general, be aggressive. So much of this game teaches you to circle and chew on your enemies and wear them down, but it seems the Elachi are meant to counter that and wear you down instead. So be aggressive. Decloak, drop the hammer hard, burn your sing powers, simply unload. When you've lost initiative, vanish and wait on your cooldowns, then do it again. Hit hard, be brutal, never ever play fair, think like a Romulan.
Its not that they're hard per se, so much as the game teaches a lot of habits that are self-destructive against this particular enemy. Different approach, it goes a lot better.
Funny I have beaten it twice now with 2 different rom toons, yes it was tough and both toons died at least one time each, but I got it done all on my own. Oh and for the guy who used a Scimitar the enemies normally match your level, so using a VA50 ship would make your Elachi friends lvl 50 as well.
While I agree I cannot be bothered with the shuttle mission to kill the walkers, as on my laptop with a touchpad its pretty much impossible, the other mission is pretty straightforward if you just plan ahead.
Generally I have always been in the D'D for this mission and go head on at the battleships with cannon or beam arrays blazing and I know full well it will jump behind me so what do I do? Simple just lay an eject warp plasma behind me as I blaze in and he jumps straight into it! That keeps him occupied for your rear weapons to tear him up a bit while you turn for cannons and beams to log back on for the next pass.
I do have to admit the very first battleship i met I couldnt kill no matter what but when you get used to them they pop like candy.
For the shuttle mission i find that using you boff slot for torp spread 1 to be the best way to complete the mission fast just activate it every 30 seconds and get 3 free enemy shuttle kills.
I played this mission in a group with two of my friends. It was the first mission we did after hitting level 30, so we all were rolling brand new stock D'Deridexes. (D'Deridexi?) After spending a good 10 minutes on the first wave, I aborted the mission, Transwarped back to New Romulus, claimed my previously unlocked Sao Paulo at the shipyard.
Even after all the time it took to do that and fly back to the mission, my teammates were still on Wave 1. We got to Wave 2 in a hurry after that, and blasted through Wave 3 after one of my buds used Wave 2 to go get HIS Sao Paulo.
That made for a much more balanced attack; the two escorts punched through the Elachi while the remain D'D tanked and healed.
I certainly noticed a big issue with the very limited ship selection for Romulans in team play: everybody has the same ship, so you all have the same role in combat. Most of the time, the mission design didn't exploit that weakness, but Last Stand slapped us in the face with the need for varied ship types.
Comments
It really is very easy if you employ some strategy other then going into the thick of things thinking you can take on the whole wave yourself.
One at a time and learn to use your cloak to your advantage.:cool:
Devil's Choice got toned down.
Last Stand ... is just boring. I don't believe it got toned down. It may be slightly overtuned, but not massively so. It's just a dull encounter set. First Mission, 3 groups, 2nd mission 3 waves of 1 group, 3rd mission 3 waves of 3 groups. Just not all that interesting to deal with.
Pics/vid or it didn't happen. I seriously doubt this is even possible to do in 30 min, and def not in a shuttle/fighter.
So I'm calling shenanigans on this.
I am a new player, I am doing fully free to play for now, only trying the game out because I have always loved romulans and the idea of flying my own d'deridex class ship appealed to me enough to install a new game.
Now, that said, my perspective is a little different than long time players trying a new character. All I have are the free ships I have been given, bridge officers I have been handed, and mission reward gear. But I have played a lot of games and consider myself competent in general.
Even so, I thought I would look up threads about this specific mission due to how hard parts of it seemed.
I found the space part difficult, but not impossibly so. I died a few times at first as I overagroed and had two groups of ship on me in the first wave. I died once in the second wave due to innatention. I scraped through the third with no deaths. I was still in the heavy warbird, as I had not gotten 30 yet (I got it after the mission though). It definately felt like a step up in difficulty from any previous mission, but not an impossible one, and I kind of like hard missions, they force one to grow their skills, learn timing for defensive abilities, use evasive maneuvers, etc. Judging by the next mission with the D'deridex, it would have been a lot easier if I was in one. Overall it felt long, but not grindingly so.
Some hints for this part for people having trouble and coming to this thread. Target incoming plasma attacks and shuttles, they die in one hit and cause a lot of damage otherwise (a 360 degree aft gun or two helps a lot). Dont be afraid to use the singularity core regularly, either offensively to soften the ships, or defensively for a big heal. Try to keep fights distant, use reverse to keep them in the right angle a bit longer, when they are in close, they are harder to track with your weapons. For people in a D'deridex, save evasive for after they teleport, spin arnound and stomp them. Make sure to have good weapons on your aft for the times when you cant turn, the durability of the ship should more than make up for the slower turning.
But my real problem was the next step. The shuttle part. I barely felt like I was playing, rather than just flying around till I died. The shuttle has pretty much no strategic options, just fly and shoot your one shot, circle some so all the shields take a few hits. you can cloak so you arent attacked, but then your squad usually sits around waiting for you, so all you are doing is taking longer, especially considering that this part felt like it took forever (probably around 45 minutes total, and far too much of that time was spent flying back to the fight after dying).
The reason this was so annoying was that it was the very first mission using a shuttle, and was clearly way over the head of anyone in a normal shuttle. I wish I had spent to buy the 35k shuttle (but with only around 100k total to my name, I decided against it in favor of the free one, unaware of the upcoming mission).
So there is the view of a new free player of an overly hard mission. I am not going to quit the game over it, but I will dread shuttle missions in the future.
The first part was meh, more of the same.
The second was more interesting. After reprogramming the satellites I got stupid and sat at the base and hit FAW. Aggroed everything. After a frantic 20 or so minutes shooting everyone and trying to stay alive I finally got them all.
Then the second wave appeared and I cloaked and moseyed over to one side. Again went FAW. This time I just aggroed 1 group but the cruiser kept on dropping adds that healed it so that took a while. For the other 2 groups I did the same thing.
When the 3rd wave came in I tried something different. This time I used beam overload on 1 ship at a time. This time things went faster. By shooting only one ship I only had to fight 1 ship. The others from the group ignored me unless I shot at them so I killed all 3 groups one ship at a time.
The Cruiser was easier to handle so long as you kill the frigates that it spawns asap so they don't heal the cruiser.
The Third part was a little harder. The first 2 waves are ok but you do have to spend time keeping the big Ha'apax alive because for some strange reason they don;t seem to have a lot of heal skills available to them. Most of thier damage is due to the Elachi charge attacks.
After killing the first wave and spending time to heal all remaining ships to full health I did the second wave with me leading the wedge of defenders. Again I had to play fireman/healer keeping the big ships alive. They can easily kill Elachi on thier own but only if you keep them alive.
This is where I gained an appreciation for the sheer survivability of the D'Deridex. My Mogai would never have lasted in this kind of fleet battle.
Again finish off the wave, heal all the remaining ships then activate the last wave.
Again the warp in but this time there were 2 Dreadnaughts with the cruisers. Then the entire elachi line of battle activated thier charge attack simultaneously! :eek:
I must say that I was so surprised to see an NPC group doing something so logical and so player like that I just sat there until they all fired! All the previous groups used thier charge attacks in a random manner like all npcs before. Ended up eating something like a dozen crescents and blowing up.
I got mad and charged back after respawning. Didn't realize that the massive charge attack killed all my allies until I was surrounded and had aggroed everyone. again with the FAW :P Then all the cruisers and the 2 dreadnaughts activated thier charge attack AFTER the elachi escorts had scrambled my skills with the Viral Matrix. Dead again.
This time I cooled off, cloaked and circled around to the side where my target Dreadnaught was. Pinned it so I can easily see it and started to whittle away it's escorts and the cruiser groups screening it.
(I love how the elachi fleet used proper escort and screening tactics to keep thier dreadnaughts covered.)
When the Fed and Klingon reinforcements came in I actually squeed in delight. Here I was all alone, my fleet dead, the planet's defense militia dead and a big TRIBBLE enemy fleet headed for a Romulan planet with the intent of harming my people. The appearance of the reinforcements came as a surprise and a welcome relief.
While I was dueling with the cruiser screening the Dreadnaught (i had already killed all 4 escorts and the 2 frigates the cruiser spawned) I noticed that the Fed group kept to the edges firing broadsides and pulling the various cruiser groups away from the core of the elachi fleet. The Klingons on the other hand made a spear of ships and bulldozed thier way to the other Dreadnaught.
While the reinforcements did not win against thier enemy groups they did cause the elachi battleline to spread out and most importantly stop them from covering the Dreadnaughts with overlapping fields of fire. Even when they were repairing they kept aggro of thier respective groups making the Dreadnaughts vulnerable.
And since the mission parameters was to destroy just the target Dreadnaught, all the other ships are relevant only if they were supporting said target.
With the Klingons and Feds keeping the supporting groups away and I had already killed the screening elements I went on a 1vs1 battle with the enemy dreadnaught. The outcome was obvious.
All in all I loved this mission. The way the Elachi was coded to use thier abilities and technological advantages to the fullest and the way they coordinated thier attacks made me actually sit up and take notice. They are the only npc race that I have seen that does not act like the typical morons.
This battle is the first and only time I had to rely on actual naval tactics to succeed. (caveat, the way they respond to an attack on thier cruiser screen with only 1 cruiser group, usually the attacked group is criminal. they should at least detach 1 or 2 more cruiser groups to kill or drive away the attacker) The timing of the reinforcements made this battle so very much like the battle of DS9. The actions of the Fed and Klingon fleets made so very Star Trek.
I loved soo much that I kept replaying it until I got the 4 beam arrays 1 Dual beam bank and 1 turret in caustic plasma for my DD.
The changes they made to the Elachi in reponse to all the "IT'S TOO HARD! NERF NERF" demands kind of ruined it for me.
tl:dr - great mission. smart elachi fleet formation and tactics. good use of unique tech from elachi. felt like fighting a real pc opponent. squee on fed/klingon reinforcement.
had to use real naval tactics to win. feels like a good ST dominion war episode. replayed to outfit my DD in all caustic plasma.
NERFs killed the episode to more boring press space bar, press skill buttons, turn ship here or there.
There are too many ships and the gameplay is not really designed for the D'deridex. Three waves of the exact same ships, that take almost an hour to defeat with "casual" gameplay? At least there should be stronger NPC ships helping you out.
Of course there could be tactics to optimize the battles. But in all seriousness, the game doesn't state them and it doesn't teach them in previous missions.
I really hope the team will touch this mission to make it less frustrating.
"Sometimes you have to do things that you hate, so you can survive to fight another day."
Whatever the ship, don't hang around for these cheating little TRIBBLE. Fight like a Romulan: cheat.
Video Link Response
A pretty video and all, but it sort of misses some of the points made in the thread.
1. You are doing it in a warbird, most of the time complaints I read were about doing it in the D'deridex.
2. Your ship is clearly better equipped than the average player just using quest rewards such as myself. Not that it is a bad thing, but I think a lot of people just stepping into the quest are just working with the free quest reward gear they have gotten up to that point, and the difficulty is a step up from prior quests. Some of us are still learning the game on our first characters, not building an optimized ship on an alt.
3. You skipped the hardest part of the mission, go back and make me a video of flying through the shuttle part in the default free shuttle and its default equipment and I'll be suitably impressed
That's a given for me. No it doesn't need to be toned down. Yes - I have been playing for sometime but I don't "Elite" my ships till I hit 50. I have 2 Fed toons, 3 Rom tons (1 Reman). I do have the 'small rom pack' but during the times I did this mission on my Rom toons, I went with the basic setup because I didn't feel the need to outfit them, nor want to take the time, EC's, etc to do so. OH! I do use what ever I pickup that's better than standard issue ;p Another thing is that there has been a lot of people complaining about this mission and the defend new romulus... I have never had any problems with these! When the first round of complaints followed LoR going live I purposely went through all the missions with my 2nd Rom Tac toon and didn't have any problems with any of them, and that was on the 2nd difficulty - "hard"? I will give that new players may not understand some things and that can and probably will make it harder for them to do such missions.
That video looks like it was done with a Valdore, and it does have an [SCap] shield! So that's an OP Ship!!! Those SCap shields are "Extreme Elite!" because they give you another way to buildup your shields! Note the icon in the hotbar: 2nd row from bottom third icon from left! I don't know/remember what that icon is at the bottom row - 7th from the left but it 'doesnt look normal to me.' "SCap" shields - search for [SCap] in the exchange and you'll see what I mean <G>
Anyway - I too remember doing this with a D'deridex ship. Given - that some things that new players may not know may make it harder... But if everyone took the time to learn some things it does in-fact make a lot of things 'easier' for you. I see and experience that many people just want to jump in and fire away, without trying to learn anything. Sure, in some games you can do that... But I know first hand that STO isn't like that and there are other games too that are not like that. One thing I had noticed the first time running this was the fact that certain types of those ships will 'beam'/'warp behind you and start firing at you from the rear. That's a possible reason why some of 'you' are dying so much. Then there are certain types of ships in this mission that fire that 'bolt' but before they do they spread that 'net' out in front of them - and that weapon I believe/remember can actually destroy your ship in one shot. Here's one thing that video does point out - do not stand toe to toe with the mobs unless it's just a single mob. I also learned first hand that you do not want to aggro more than one group at a time because that will ultimately lead to your destruction. Why? Because then you'll have like 6 or more ships firing at you and you can generally only attack a few/couple at a time. This means that your shields and hull definitely do not have enough time to repair themselves. So I learned early on to move way out and then attack one group - one ship at a time and focus on that single ship - unless one of those 'certain ships' was going to attack me; then I had to re-prioritize it as a primary target and take it out first. But I seem to remember that it did take over an hour for me on that first time, and yes I did die a few times at least, but I learned some valuable lessons from this mission. As for the defend new romulus - after it said to retreat the first time I didn't immediately go back and start that 2nd wave, I moved back just enough to heal the other Romulan Republic ships before engaging in the next fight. Why? Because that was the only help I had in that mission and I had seen the 'massive' first wave so I knew that if I didn't heal them - I could possibly be facing the next wave by myself.
So the choice is up to all of you new players... Learn a bit and you'll probably succeed at this game... Or just try to go through it without learning anything and probably fail and become frustrated and leave. Because once you hit level 50 - and start with Special Task Force (STF) missions - you'll definitely need to learn something before even going into the Elite Special Task Force missions; because the difference between the 'normal' and Elite STF's are like what you're experiencing here in this mission. And even though they're 'the same mission' the difference between normal and Elite is drastic!!!
I will note that a lot of us experienced players will go out of our way to help anyone and everyone! Also that these Forums and the Wiki are probably your two best sources for information about anything and everything related to STO.
So the choice is 'yours.'
I liked that video....yeah you can rock that mission in an advanced ship when you are a vice admiral.
And I noticed he used the drain stuff too....I liked how every power system got beyond 100 as he played....I don't know how to do that...I only have stuff that makes my weapons and shields do that.
Its funny I had two differing experiences with that missions.....one I was using the ship everyone talks about and my beam weapons took forever to kill stuff...not sure why....I think they might have had resistances to them.
Though my first time....I was using differing weapons and I went through the mission fairly fast.
SO maybe its mostly just a matter of what people are using for weapons on their ships.
Power without Perception is Spiritually useless and therefore of no true value.
=^_^=
If people are interested I will consider making a new Rommie and record all the missions while levelling and make a series on my channel. I suppose then I can share what I do and how I get my skills and levels like I do, but it really is rather easy and anybody can do it.
I know I seem OP in that video but I am a PvPer and thats my PvP ship and setup. I ran it the first time in the standard Mogai and still remember it being as easy just took a little longer. My power levels are due in part to Plasmonic leech console and Auxiliary to Battery skill (one copy) nothing fancy attainable by all !
The skills you see and don't recognise are the tier 5 reputation skill's and my shield is a fleet shield the ship is a Fleet Mogai ! Oh and this is my main character I have others but don't play them now I have my Rommie !
As weapons I suggest you try the Plasma Disruptor Hybrids or the Caustic Plasma I levelled to 50 and used them for a while after I reached 50 great weapon's for PvE (caustic plasma). If you can afford them get hold of Nanite disruptors these 3 weapons will more than suffice until you can get rep or fleet ones !
This is for 'new players' and for a new player to obtain some of this 'stuff' is not likely because I remember - besides having to buy batteries and things to repair the ship, I really didn't have any EC's. For me - this is a pivotal point/mission in the game - it should 'teach you' that everything's not easy. Sure it's repetitive, sure 'they've could have done it better' but thousands! Thousands have done this mission, albeit some may have skipped it; but ultimately it's up to the new players to actually try to learn some things, or at least try.
So - it's up to you as a new player. There is help here, in main chat, etc. "You" just got to put forth the effort to ask and actually want to learn and want to succeed. "We" can give you the tools - IF you ask and take them and use them. If not - you're pretty much doomed to failure.
[closed]
Also you shouldn't need to spend any money on shield charges and you can easily earn a good amount of EC from Starbase 24.
About the shuttle mission. This doesn't look like it is nerved. It can be tough, since the shuttle has not many options and the torpedoes from the walkers or focused fire from the enemy shuttles is a certain death.
Here are a couple of tips.
First take the upgrade shuttle, the one you can buy for about 35,000 EC. Put a beam array and a Harg'Peng torpedo on it. Take a plasma beam and a tac Boff with tac team. I find tac team the best skill for a small craft with one boff. A side note. If you are an engineer and you have that battery trait, that boost all your powers when you use one of your emergeny power skill, I suggest you slot an engineer boff with EPtS.
About the rest of your shuttle equipment. Use the stuff from your main ship. You can swap items. No need to buy or farm for extras.
The fight. Stay at the center and group the shuttle eskaders with follow me. Forget about the walkers stay at central area and wait for the incoming shuttls. Overall, try to avoid to fight enemy shuttles and a walker at the same time. As soon as you engage the enemy shuttles give the order attack my target. When you have cleared a wave regroup them with the follow me order, go back to the main central area if you have drifted of. New shuttle formations, friendly, are here to pick up.
When the first incoming waves are cleared. Go for one of the walkers. Again focus fire with attack my target. The harg'peng torpedo does good damage against the walker. Watch out, you will get focus.. If you get an new incoming wave of enemy shuttles and the walker has too much health, pull out. Go back to the central area. Most likely the enemy shuttles will chase you, but that is ok, you can fight them now on your terms.
So that is in a nuttshell the pattern. Split the enemy up, don't give them a numerical advantage. Lead your group, use them as a team. When you just fly among them, or go one your own, you will be beaten.
Finally. Use objects and buildings to hide, when your health is low. Use narrow passages if you are chased. You are a better pilot than the AI, you should.
Now Battle of New Rommy that is hard, I had to call in 2 level 50s to help me
It was easy. I started the mission off by cloaking and then doing...absolutely nothing...while the NPCs did everything for me. I went and took a nice hearty dump while waiting, then came back to find the mission had completed on its own.
So try this strategy: "Number One, you have the Bridge. I need to go take a Number Two."
Valdus | Charn | Costello | Typhus | Thyran
Now I really hate hearing my self say this but if you are having a hard time, get just 1 friend to help. You don't need a group, but just 1 other person makes a huge difference.
However, if you are ready for it just get the D'D. I honestly feel the mission was designed around being in that huge hulking tank of a ship.
First, kill the frigates first. You're a Romulan with a battle cloak, and its the little flimsy frigates that make the Elachi so annoying, so make sure the little TRIBBLE have a 3-second life expectancy. For a tac ship especially you have enough firepower to simply end them in a single decloak-alpha salvo, and when those viral matricies and tactor-cluster torps go away, the remaining ships are a pretty standard fight.
Second, stay outside of 5km. Their subspace jump has to be within 5km to pop behind you, so if you stay just beyond that they'll all stay in your front sights. Alternately, use their behavior to your advantage and use a small AOE attack at close range, get them all to jump behind you at once and cluster up nicely for your bigger AOE hits.
Third for sci in particular, I've found the Elachi seem especially vulnerable to drain attacks. Using a sci ship built for draining (energy siphon x2, polarons, leech, assimilator, subsystem target), I found that hit with any 3 things at once, Elachi ships have apparently no points in Power Insulators and simply shut down. And I was only running 100 points in Flow Caps, so someone adding a couple of consoles could probably shutdown with just 2 abilities. Not fair, but fun to turn the tables on the TRIBBLE.
Fourth, just in general, be aggressive. So much of this game teaches you to circle and chew on your enemies and wear them down, but it seems the Elachi are meant to counter that and wear you down instead. So be aggressive. Decloak, drop the hammer hard, burn your sing powers, simply unload. When you've lost initiative, vanish and wait on your cooldowns, then do it again. Hit hard, be brutal, never ever play fair, think like a Romulan.
Its not that they're hard per se, so much as the game teaches a lot of habits that are self-destructive against this particular enemy. Different approach, it goes a lot better.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
I really don't understand how people had trouble with this mission.
Generally I have always been in the D'D for this mission and go head on at the battleships with cannon or beam arrays blazing and I know full well it will jump behind me so what do I do? Simple just lay an eject warp plasma behind me as I blaze in and he jumps straight into it! That keeps him occupied for your rear weapons to tear him up a bit while you turn for cannons and beams to log back on for the next pass.
I do have to admit the very first battleship i met I couldnt kill no matter what but when you get used to them they pop like candy.
Still waiting to be able to use forum titles
Last stand is the worst mission Ive run so far. 3 waves of 9 or so ships is insane. ONE wave would have been enough but three?
Even after all the time it took to do that and fly back to the mission, my teammates were still on Wave 1. We got to Wave 2 in a hurry after that, and blasted through Wave 3 after one of my buds used Wave 2 to go get HIS Sao Paulo.
That made for a much more balanced attack; the two escorts punched through the Elachi while the remain D'D tanked and healed.
I certainly noticed a big issue with the very limited ship selection for Romulans in team play: everybody has the same ship, so you all have the same role in combat. Most of the time, the mission design didn't exploit that weakness, but Last Stand slapped us in the face with the need for varied ship types.