So i decide to try out pvp. this game's pvp has reached a tipping point. You either really really have, or you really really dont. and theres nothing that can really be done to save it. its to specialized. the feeling i get, as a new pvper, is you have no chance in hell of ever getting better, there is no learning curve. you are just here so us leet veterans have a target to practice on. My experience is so bad thats im never trying it again. ever. cryptic could dangle a three pack of scimitar ships in front of me, and id tell them where they can shove their TRIBBLE.
ok ill leave now so everyone can tell me how bad i am, or learn to fly. and i wont read a word of it. Just wanting you to have feedback, of why ill never pvp again.
TL;DR the learning curve in pvp is too brutal. to ever get the pvp community to grow, soften it.
The OP here is right on many points
players win records
ship
equipment on ship
Doffs
all have to be assignd point valuses assigned to them
and matches fought based on these values
A Elite PvP player with all the best might be worth in points 5 new players in point value
Its the only way to make pvp Fun and Fair to all
On another note PvP and PvE must be seperated into seperate games , its impossible to balence both together
Point" beam overload is now useless again in PvE to make a balence pass for PvP
Jellico....Engineer ground.....Da'val Romulan space Sci
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Hrmm, perhaps it would help folks looking at that build to think of it in this light:
Fly around cloaked, waiting - watching what others are doing - waiting until somebody is vulnerable - decloak, maybe kill them - maybe not...run away as fast as possible and try to recloak.
Against the potentially average Fed PUG in a FvF match...it might work - might work well.
If you've got five folks that are spamming their buffs, leaving huge gaps, not paying attention in the least to what's going on around them...then it might work well. So yeah, in that average Fed PUG FvF match...
Well, yeah. It's not tactically sound to let your opponent dictate the terms of the fight. You hit him when he's weak and you're strong. Measuring things in the context of "pistols at dawn, twenty paces, turn and fire" is stupid and pointless.
Well, yeah. It's not tactically sound to let your opponent dictate the terms of the fight. You hit him when he's weak and you're strong. Measuring things in the context of "pistols at dawn, twenty paces, turn and fire" is stupid and pointless.
The OP is at the point I was at about 9 months ago.
I fully understand everything he is saying, cause I along with a lot of other people, have been there.
Two peices of advice...
1: Yes, you HAVE to get rep stuff, there is no way around it. 2 peice assimilated borg (deflector and engine) and the MACO shield or an elite fleet shield if you can get it.
2: Keep. Moving.
I can't stress point two enough, in PVP arena you HAVE to keep moving. Many, many times i have seen cruisers and in some cases escorts just sit there all still and pound away at the target, you sit still for too long, you are dead. Keep. Moving.
My romulan character only has T3 in Nukara, Omega and Rom rep, its only using the old Aegis 3 peice set i bought from the exchange, and with liberal use of the battlecloak it does alright. When i started PVP though in my Excelsior (cstore version before i got the fleet version) with Aegis set, it got wailed on, constantly.
That was nine months ago. about 7 months ago i finished Omega rep, got the borg 2 peice and maco shield, and THATS when things started to change.
The bar has been set too high in PVP. Its not the players fault, they are only using what the DEVELOPERS gave them.
Another smaller peice of advice. Go into Kerrat. It's usually quiet, when it is you can kill borg and farm ec's from them (ignore the "mission" just kill borg) and now and again you can get killed by klingons ganking you. The longer you survive against a klingon, the better you can do in arena pvp.
"You know when that shark bites, with its teeth dear... scarlet billows start to spread..."
I gave up on PVP a little after F2P started. The writing was on the wall when the bug ship came out, and it has got increasingly worse as each lockbox was released.
The only way they could save PVP now, is if all lockbox/special consoles/Doffs were banned from it, but even then, I seriously doubt that would be enough...
That of course, would need Cryptic/PWE to give up on the guaranteed money stream from PVPer's buying the stuff to stay competitive. Something we wont see for sure....
2a: Like the fictional Romulan Admiral's quote in (I think) the rotating loading screen text, if you're in an escort, "Your default status is cloaked."
I've already got beam overload. I don't want two copies of anything. That bores me. DPS grinder boats bore me. They BORE ME. Do you understand yet? PvP DPS is not the be-all, end-all of the entire game. It's actually a tiny, miniscule, insignificant fraction of the game.
You're going to want to look above at the part of your screen that says this: Star Trek Online > Feedback > PvP Gameplay > I understand now why pvp is dead. This is a PvP discussion forum. And DPS is in fact the be-all end-all of PvP.
All I'm getting from posts like yours is the arrogant presumption that there is only one right way to play the game, that you have found it and your burden is enlightening the ignorant rubes. :rolleyes: I've been playing this game for years, I know exactly what I give up to have what I want, and you are only projecting your own limitations to dismiss it out of hand because you're unable to conceive of any tactic that puts it all to good use.
Ad hominem and internet pop psychology. You really shouldn't go down that road as somebody who sounds like the Amazing Kreskin.
Meh. I just hit the "today's posts" link. Too many hair-splitting sub-forums in here. Doesn't change the fact that PvP is a miniscule portion of the game. :P
And DPS is in fact the be-all end-all of PvP.
So suggest a DPScort build that isn't some boring cookie cutter, all energy weapon consoles, 4DHC+3 turret and tactical team spam boat build. Because that bores the teats right off of me, and I submit that it is a flawed game that requires everyone to be exactly the same in order to be successful.
So I basically played STO for PvP prior to any of this new content. I guess you could say I was an "original" PvPer.
I don't mind change or evolution, really, but PvP in this game has always suffered from normalization problems -- whether it be in the BOFF skills themselves, the PuGs or teams you are facing, or the latest/greatest new shiny thing that came out to abuse on people.
So the most recent thing is to disable people for 20-30 seconds using the new console (Not sure what it's called, sorry -- been gone for a year), and stack it with other disables like a tractor beam or VM. VM got nerfed pretty hard because this tactic of the forever-disable has been around since the beginning, it was just fixed for a while presumably.
Chaining doesn't seem to have diminishing returns so you can literally be out of control of your ship for half a minute. The console disables all your abilities, so you can't respond to it, you're purely dead in the water for 5-10 seconds. Abilities without a counter might work for an STF, but they unbalance PvP. Things like this need to be allocated into a normalized debuff duration group. Whether you were VMed, consoled, jammed, SS disabled, etc, at some point, for balance, you should be immune to the disabling effects after X seconds.
But the reason that strategy is needed to win, a lot of the times, is because the issue RSP started months if not years ago.
There's no attrition, really. STO space combat is completely, wholly, and entirely cooldown based. And there's no limiting factor on how long you can do this for. You can fire your phasers indefinitely. Which doesn't seem wrong, but in every star trek ever, you eventually run out of power.
Literally, the best tactic is just to make a key binding to push your buffs for you so the are up all the time. There's just no reason not to have them up when they're available because they tend to be a heal + resistance for X seconds.
Granted some are used contextually (RSP), but look at virtually any ship in PvP flown by a player who didn't start PvP yesterday -- and they have a list of buffs up because it's the only way to live longer than 2 seconds from alpha strikes.
Couple this with the fact there is absolutely no rating system whatsoever, and you end up throwing the Kirk's to the wolves, and folks like the OP, who we'd all like to participate in PvP, will never touch it again. We want MORE people in PvP, not less -- playing the same teams over and over gets old.
PvP in STO needs desperately to be normalized. Right now it's like this:
1) Do ****** burst damage
2) Live forever
-optional-
3) Abuse this season/week's cheese.
There's no reason not to do #3 unless you have a moral qualm with it. As cryptic continues to add weird work around items (like super-shield penetrating mines dropped in your face that don't hurt the ship they melee'd you with them), it only makes the fundamental problem worse.
Living forever and no attrition can't hold. Cooldown based combat only encourages people to make rotation macros and they win against people who try to play the game normally -- shields are low use my shield heal. Nope, sorry, that logic doesn't work because if you don't have EPtS overlapping or Tac Team, you will get hosed by the mega-alpha-strike.
Either shields are unbreakable, or they melt instantly. Extremes. No normalization. Same problem as the day of release. The solution? Add longer cooldowns and shared timers.
So suggest a DPScort build that isn't some boring cookie cutter, all energy weapon consoles, 4DHC+3 turret and tactical team spam boat build. Because that bores the teats right off of me, and I submit that it is a flawed game that requires everyone to be exactly the same in order to be successful.
Meh. I just hit the "today's posts" link. Too many hair-splitting sub-forums in here. Doesn't change the fact that PvP is a miniscule portion of the game. :P
So suggest a DPScort build that isn't some boring cookie cutter, all energy weapon consoles, 4DHC+3 turret and tactical team spam boat build. Because that bores the teats right off of me, and I submit that it is a flawed game that requires everyone to be exactly the same in order to be successful.
Well you just have to accept reality that this games shield resists are so high you need to have 4 or 5 energy damage consoles to have a chance of breaking through shields. If you take an escort into pvp and have stuff other then energy damage consoles in your tac slots you are leaving your team down 1 persons worth of damage.
I can give you a build that is not 4 DHC, but it still needs all energy consoles, and will let you better play to engs strength of high power levels and energy drain mitigation, and should be pretty tanky and not rely too much on cross heals, I use this on a fleet somraw sometimes when I get tired of my eng only being in heal cruisers.
Fleet patrol escort or fleet saber
3 DHC, 1 DBB
2 turrets, 1 cutting beam
2 piece omega
elite shields
elite [AMP] core if possible or any mk xi rare or better
devices- subspace field modulator and RMC or battery of your preference
eng consoles- leech, borg, romulan, neutronium, (dil mine if possible) (ditch romulan for more armor or rcs if needed)
sci consoles 2 x embassy flow caps [HuH] and [ShdH]
tac consoles- 4 of your energy type
Boffs
TT1, BO2, APO1, APO3
TT1, BO2, CRF2
EPTE1, Aux2ID1
EPTS1
HE1, TSS2
doffs, 2 damage control, 1 MA specialist (aux2ID version), 2 BO penetration doffs
couldnt you switch the borg and rom beam arrays? i mean... the borg is a 360 after all....
YAY i gave constructive feedback!
I'm not very good, though...so with all my weapons on autofire and everything on my spacebar - I'd run the risk of having the BO fire with the Experimental Array instead of the Hyper Tet.
I'm not very good, though...so with all my weapons on autofire and everything on my spacebar - I'd run the risk of having the BO fire with the Experimental Array instead of the Hyper Tet.
Yeah, I often run with autofire as well, largely because I randomly encounter lag/rubberbanding that makes it hard to be efficient with manual spacebar-spamming. I prefer to not have to think about my weapons, and instead concentrate on my abilities and my maneuvering. That alone is quite enough for me :P
Yeah, I often run with autofire as well, largely because I randomly encounter lag/rubberbanding that makes it hard to be efficient with manual spacebar-spamming. I prefer to not have to think about my weapons, and instead concentrate on my abilities and my maneuvering. That alone is quite enough for me :P
I try to avoid things where having them on autofire could complicate things.
One of the really trippy things is in regard to torps. Each time I think I've got the system down, it changes on me randomly through the course of play.
Sometimes it's where (left to right). Sometimes it's when (first last, last first). Sometimes it's just random. It can be annoying.
Trying to do the Beach Ball, HY Omega, TS Chron, Hargh, then whatever...it's always fun seeing just how they come out. /facepalm
I've got multiple toons, two of which are Engineers, so I guess there's no reason why I can't experiment. But I am a highly skeptical audience, and there will still have to be some compromises on what everyone insists is ideal.
I'm not changing my weapons until the year 2050 when I finally unlock Elite ship weapons in my 2-man fleet base. On the guinea pig toon, I'm running Antiprotons: 2xMKXII purple DHC [borg], one Mk XI purple DBB [not borg], and the Mk XII Omega Torpedo launcher up front, plus the cutting beam, Mk XII purple turret [borg], and the Web mine launcher out back.
I also consider my MK XII Borg Deflector + Impulse, Mk XII Adapted MACO Covariant shield, and Mk XI Blue Field-Stabilizing Warp Core [A->W] to be well suited for an escort, and not the problem here.
In order to get myself two copies of Tactical Team, I had to give up what I was using as a secondary fire mode for the DBB (FAW1). I'm keeping BO3 and CRF3, so it was THY3 I gave up to have APO1, which in turn forced me to give up CSV1 in exchange for THY2. I'm not running mines with no way to buff them, so this leaves me with only TS1 as a crowd-control measure, which makes me uneasy...
On the Eng BOFF, EPtE1 was replaced with EpTS1, but I kept ET2.
On the Sci BOFF, St1 was replaced with HE1, and I kept PH2.
Test #1 leaves the consoles unchanged (to control experiment parameters):
Sci/Eng slots taken up by cloak, photonic displacement, nukara console, borg console, and romulan console.
Tac slots - 3xAntiproton Mag Regulator Mk XI purple, 2x Ambiplasma envelope Mk XII purple.
Also no changes to my own skill point allocation, and no new DOFFs purchased (DOFF contribution probably negligible at this point. I don't even remember what I have in there)
In testing (PvP and PvE):
I do maybe find it a bit more survivable, and and that somewhat offsets the reduced ability to run away. I don't often get hit with two+ tractor beams in rapid succession, and I rarely burned to death in plasma fire, so that HE1 isn't the magic game-changer button everyone would have me believe it is.
Yes, the one set of alpha strike buffs I have left does do a little more damage, but it's not overwhelming, and then it's all on cooldown, and I'm left with nothing but that TS1 as a backup. I still can't reliably kill every target in one pass, so I'm not convinced I've gained anything by leaving myself shooting un-buffed for that cooldown duration.
Sure, I've got resists and heals that don't share cooldowns, so I may be surviving a bit longer while I'm chipping away with un-buffed attacks, but I'm really not convinced that's what I want for an escort. If I can't do something about the cooldowns on those Tac BOFF skills, I'm not ready to call this an improvement.
What I might try next:
Swapping out that Romulan Console for my trusty old MK XII purple Neutronium, and swapping out one of the Ambiplasma Envelopes for another Antiproton Mag Regulator.
Rearranging skill points so I spend a few on Attack Patterns and Driver Coil.
Finding some DOFFs that will help with the Tac DOFF cooldown.
I haven't been playing long, just a little under a year. A few months before the rep system came out I think. And I remember before that system I could hold my own in the free science vessel I got when getting promoted to rear admiral. I could even score kills. About the time the rep system came out is when I bought my Vesta (my first c-store ship), and thought "Now I can REALLY have fun". That must have coincided with when people started getting the higher level gear off the rep system because I haven't scored a kill since I bought it, and I'm lucky to stay alive long enough to even shoot at somebody. So of course now I'm grinding the rep system because ... I get knocked down but I get up again, cause your never gonna... Oh sorry.
Anyways. I think a big apart of the problem may be balance. But here's my idea:
The game has certain things you can't participate in (like new Romulus) until you're level 50. So why not have certain things you can't participate in AFTER a certain level. I would say have Pvp divided into ranks starting at captain level. Only captain levels can que up. one for RA and one for VA pre-level 50. Hard core is for lvl 50. I've also heard rumors of possible level cap increases and what that might look like. How about going to level 55, with those last 5 levels tied to your advancement in the rep system. Actually that might keep things TOO boring. Maybe just say hard core Pvp is open to anybody above Lvl 50, but at your own risk. At least this way, if you've taken advantage of the lower level PvP you may have learned enough to work on your skill in the harcore Pvp.
May not solve the problem completely, but it might go along ways to helping. Or maybe you can't move into the next level until you hit the right rank AND have scored so many kills, so much DPS or something, just so there is a sense of fairness (everyones the same rank), as well as a reasonable presumption of minimum skill readiness (scored so much whatever).
My advice.
Don't even bother with PvP.
All you get is elitest PvP fleets with more entitlement to have fun than mere mortals like us.
Rolling up the queues with their cheese and cheats. Yes I said it, there seems to be a few who enjoy using broken mechanics like stacking multiple SNBs on one target, causing countdowns to either stick at 2 minutes for a stupid length of time to actually throwing countdowns upto 6+ minutes.
Its pathetic frankly.
That's why no ones interested.
That's why so many PvPers have left as well.
Just don't even bother, its not worth the time, money and hassle just to get rofl'd by a premade over and over again!
No, really. I was willing to experiment. Any thoughts on my last two posts?
You're making progress, better then the build you were working with before, although I still would recommend all energy damage consoles even if using a torp.
As for doffs its not that hard if you filter other factions boffs out with the new option at the bottom of the exchange window then select rarity, you should check very rares first, then if price is to high search for rare doffs of that category.
You're making progress, better then the build you were working with before, although I still would recommend all energy damage consoles even if using a torp.
Something to keep in mind with this - is taking a look at some of the math involved.
A Torp with no consoles can hit Hull harder than Energy with 4 consoles (I think it was 4, I don't have a 5 console ship to have done any testing - so it had to have been 4).
Likewise, Energy with no consoles can hit Shields harder than a Torp with 4 consoles.
Personally, I wouldn't give up an Energy console for a Projectile console. Course, on a boat with 4(+) Tac consoles - I could see giving up one for a Universal console if I felt that it provided a larger benefit. I dropped an Energy for the Nukara on a 4 Tac ship - running Beams, the +10% Accuracy was more important to me than another +28.1-30.0% base (TRIBBLE/Mk 0) damage. If I don't hit, I'm not doing any damage anyway...
Might not be entirely up to date, with the amount of changes the devs make to stuff, but it'll at least give you a good idea of what's what.
Wait.. I don't recall seeing one of these:
Energy Weapons officer: Chance to gain shield power when using energy weapons
Projectile Weapons Officer: Chance to gain shield power when using Torpedo Weapons.
You think that your beta test was bad?
Think about this: American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku
Comments
The OP here is right on many points
players win records
ship
equipment on ship
Doffs
all have to be assignd point valuses assigned to them
and matches fought based on these values
A Elite PvP player with all the best might be worth in points 5 new players in point value
Its the only way to make pvp Fun and Fair to all
On another note PvP and PvE must be seperated into seperate games , its impossible to balence both together
Point" beam overload is now useless again in PvE to make a balence pass for PvP
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
Fly around cloaked, waiting - watching what others are doing - waiting until somebody is vulnerable - decloak, maybe kill them - maybe not...run away as fast as possible and try to recloak.
Against the potentially average Fed PUG in a FvF match...it might work - might work well.
If you've got five folks that are spamming their buffs, leaving huge gaps, not paying attention in the least to what's going on around them...then it might work well. So yeah, in that average Fed PUG FvF match...
so a match? :P
Do you even Science Bro?
I fully understand everything he is saying, cause I along with a lot of other people, have been there.
Two peices of advice...
1: Yes, you HAVE to get rep stuff, there is no way around it. 2 peice assimilated borg (deflector and engine) and the MACO shield or an elite fleet shield if you can get it.
2: Keep. Moving.
I can't stress point two enough, in PVP arena you HAVE to keep moving. Many, many times i have seen cruisers and in some cases escorts just sit there all still and pound away at the target, you sit still for too long, you are dead. Keep. Moving.
My romulan character only has T3 in Nukara, Omega and Rom rep, its only using the old Aegis 3 peice set i bought from the exchange, and with liberal use of the battlecloak it does alright. When i started PVP though in my Excelsior (cstore version before i got the fleet version) with Aegis set, it got wailed on, constantly.
That was nine months ago. about 7 months ago i finished Omega rep, got the borg 2 peice and maco shield, and THATS when things started to change.
The bar has been set too high in PVP. Its not the players fault, they are only using what the DEVELOPERS gave them.
Another smaller peice of advice. Go into Kerrat. It's usually quiet, when it is you can kill borg and farm ec's from them (ignore the "mission" just kill borg) and now and again you can get killed by klingons ganking you. The longer you survive against a klingon, the better you can do in arena pvp.
The only way they could save PVP now, is if all lockbox/special consoles/Doffs were banned from it, but even then, I seriously doubt that would be enough...
That of course, would need Cryptic/PWE to give up on the guaranteed money stream from PVPer's buying the stuff to stay competitive. Something we wont see for sure....
Seconded. Also:
2a: Like the fictional Romulan Admiral's quote in (I think) the rotating loading screen text, if you're in an escort, "Your default status is cloaked."
Happily, if one day we're online at the same time.
YAY! :P now if only....
Do you even Science Bro?
Ad hominem and internet pop psychology. You really shouldn't go down that road as somebody who sounds like the Amazing Kreskin.
Enjoy your min/min build.
Meh. I just hit the "today's posts" link. Too many hair-splitting sub-forums in here. Doesn't change the fact that PvP is a miniscule portion of the game. :P
So suggest a DPScort build that isn't some boring cookie cutter, all energy weapon consoles, 4DHC+3 turret and tactical team spam boat build. Because that bores the teats right off of me, and I submit that it is a flawed game that requires everyone to be exactly the same in order to be successful.
I don't mind change or evolution, really, but PvP in this game has always suffered from normalization problems -- whether it be in the BOFF skills themselves, the PuGs or teams you are facing, or the latest/greatest new shiny thing that came out to abuse on people.
So the most recent thing is to disable people for 20-30 seconds using the new console (Not sure what it's called, sorry -- been gone for a year), and stack it with other disables like a tractor beam or VM. VM got nerfed pretty hard because this tactic of the forever-disable has been around since the beginning, it was just fixed for a while presumably.
Chaining doesn't seem to have diminishing returns so you can literally be out of control of your ship for half a minute. The console disables all your abilities, so you can't respond to it, you're purely dead in the water for 5-10 seconds. Abilities without a counter might work for an STF, but they unbalance PvP. Things like this need to be allocated into a normalized debuff duration group. Whether you were VMed, consoled, jammed, SS disabled, etc, at some point, for balance, you should be immune to the disabling effects after X seconds.
But the reason that strategy is needed to win, a lot of the times, is because the issue RSP started months if not years ago.
There's no attrition, really. STO space combat is completely, wholly, and entirely cooldown based. And there's no limiting factor on how long you can do this for. You can fire your phasers indefinitely. Which doesn't seem wrong, but in every star trek ever, you eventually run out of power.
Literally, the best tactic is just to make a key binding to push your buffs for you so the are up all the time. There's just no reason not to have them up when they're available because they tend to be a heal + resistance for X seconds.
Granted some are used contextually (RSP), but look at virtually any ship in PvP flown by a player who didn't start PvP yesterday -- and they have a list of buffs up because it's the only way to live longer than 2 seconds from alpha strikes.
Couple this with the fact there is absolutely no rating system whatsoever, and you end up throwing the Kirk's to the wolves, and folks like the OP, who we'd all like to participate in PvP, will never touch it again. We want MORE people in PvP, not less -- playing the same teams over and over gets old.
PvP in STO needs desperately to be normalized. Right now it's like this:
1) Do ****** burst damage
2) Live forever
-optional-
3) Abuse this season/week's cheese.
There's no reason not to do #3 unless you have a moral qualm with it. As cryptic continues to add weird work around items (like super-shield penetrating mines dropped in your face that don't hurt the ship they melee'd you with them), it only makes the fundamental problem worse.
Living forever and no attrition can't hold. Cooldown based combat only encourages people to make rotation macros and they win against people who try to play the game normally -- shields are low use my shield heal. Nope, sorry, that logic doesn't work because if you don't have EPtS overlapping or Tac Team, you will get hosed by the mega-alpha-strike.
Either shields are unbreakable, or they melt instantly. Extremes. No normalization. Same problem as the day of release. The solution? Add longer cooldowns and shared timers.
Yeah, that didn't fix it, guys!
Fleet Defiant w/ Alien Eng Captain
Traits - Accurate, Astrophysicist, EPS Manifold, Elusive, Efficient, Grace Under Fire, Helmsman, Techie, Warp Theorist
Reputation
New Rom - Precision, Sensor Targeting Assault, Quantum Singularity Manipulation
Nukara - Enhanced Shield Penetration, Aux Power Config - Offense, Refracting Tetryon Cascade
Omega - Omega Weapon Training, Omega Graviton Amplifier
TT1, DPA1, APO1, APO3
TT1, TS2, BO3
TS1
EPtS1, EPtS2
PH1, HE2
(3x Op, 2x Sub)
DOFFs - WCE(Cleanse), 2x SDO(BFI), 2x Conn(Acc/Per)
Deflector - Omega Mk XII
Impulse - Omega Mk XII
Core - Elite Reinforced Mk XII [SEP][W->S][SCap][AMP][SST]
Shields - AMACO Mk XII
Weapons
Fore - Subspace Torp, Heavy Crescent, Hyper R-Tet DBB, Cutting Beam
Aft - Experimental Array, Web Mines, Hyper Torp
Consoles
Tac - Leech, Bioneural, Tachyokinetic, Isometric, Nukara
Eng - Borg, 0Point, E-Neut Mk XII [+Turn]
Sci - 2x Rom Flow Mk XII [HuH]
Devices - RMC, SFM
Well you just have to accept reality that this games shield resists are so high you need to have 4 or 5 energy damage consoles to have a chance of breaking through shields. If you take an escort into pvp and have stuff other then energy damage consoles in your tac slots you are leaving your team down 1 persons worth of damage.
I can give you a build that is not 4 DHC, but it still needs all energy consoles, and will let you better play to engs strength of high power levels and energy drain mitigation, and should be pretty tanky and not rely too much on cross heals, I use this on a fleet somraw sometimes when I get tired of my eng only being in heal cruisers.
Fleet patrol escort or fleet saber
3 DHC, 1 DBB
2 turrets, 1 cutting beam
2 piece omega
elite shields
elite [AMP] core if possible or any mk xi rare or better
devices- subspace field modulator and RMC or battery of your preference
eng consoles- leech, borg, romulan, neutronium, (dil mine if possible) (ditch romulan for more armor or rcs if needed)
sci consoles 2 x embassy flow caps [HuH] and [ShdH]
tac consoles- 4 of your energy type
Boffs
TT1, BO2, APO1, APO3
TT1, BO2, CRF2
EPTE1, Aux2ID1
EPTS1
HE1, TSS2
doffs, 2 damage control, 1 MA specialist (aux2ID version), 2 BO penetration doffs
couldnt you switch the borg and rom beam arrays? i mean... the borg is a 360 after all....
YAY i gave constructive feedback!
Do you even Science Bro?
I'm not very good, though...so with all my weapons on autofire and everything on my spacebar - I'd run the risk of having the BO fire with the Experimental Array instead of the Hyper Tet.
Yeah, I often run with autofire as well, largely because I randomly encounter lag/rubberbanding that makes it hard to be efficient with manual spacebar-spamming. I prefer to not have to think about my weapons, and instead concentrate on my abilities and my maneuvering. That alone is quite enough for me :P
I try to avoid things where having them on autofire could complicate things.
One of the really trippy things is in regard to torps. Each time I think I've got the system down, it changes on me randomly through the course of play.
Sometimes it's where (left to right). Sometimes it's when (first last, last first). Sometimes it's just random. It can be annoying.
Trying to do the Beach Ball, HY Omega, TS Chron, Hargh, then whatever...it's always fun seeing just how they come out. /facepalm
I'm not changing my weapons until the year 2050 when I finally unlock Elite ship weapons in my 2-man fleet base. On the guinea pig toon, I'm running Antiprotons: 2xMKXII purple DHC [borg], one Mk XI purple DBB [not borg], and the Mk XII Omega Torpedo launcher up front, plus the cutting beam, Mk XII purple turret [borg], and the Web mine launcher out back.
I also consider my MK XII Borg Deflector + Impulse, Mk XII Adapted MACO Covariant shield, and Mk XI Blue Field-Stabilizing Warp Core [A->W] to be well suited for an escort, and not the problem here.
In order to get myself two copies of Tactical Team, I had to give up what I was using as a secondary fire mode for the DBB (FAW1). I'm keeping BO3 and CRF3, so it was THY3 I gave up to have APO1, which in turn forced me to give up CSV1 in exchange for THY2. I'm not running mines with no way to buff them, so this leaves me with only TS1 as a crowd-control measure, which makes me uneasy...
On the Eng BOFF, EPtE1 was replaced with EpTS1, but I kept ET2.
On the Sci BOFF, St1 was replaced with HE1, and I kept PH2.
Test #1 leaves the consoles unchanged (to control experiment parameters):
Sci/Eng slots taken up by cloak, photonic displacement, nukara console, borg console, and romulan console.
Tac slots - 3xAntiproton Mag Regulator Mk XI purple, 2x Ambiplasma envelope Mk XII purple.
Also no changes to my own skill point allocation, and no new DOFFs purchased (DOFF contribution probably negligible at this point. I don't even remember what I have in there)
In testing (PvP and PvE):
I do maybe find it a bit more survivable, and and that somewhat offsets the reduced ability to run away. I don't often get hit with two+ tractor beams in rapid succession, and I rarely burned to death in plasma fire, so that HE1 isn't the magic game-changer button everyone would have me believe it is.
Yes, the one set of alpha strike buffs I have left does do a little more damage, but it's not overwhelming, and then it's all on cooldown, and I'm left with nothing but that TS1 as a backup. I still can't reliably kill every target in one pass, so I'm not convinced I've gained anything by leaving myself shooting un-buffed for that cooldown duration.
Sure, I've got resists and heals that don't share cooldowns, so I may be surviving a bit longer while I'm chipping away with un-buffed attacks, but I'm really not convinced that's what I want for an escort. If I can't do something about the cooldowns on those Tac BOFF skills, I'm not ready to call this an improvement.
What I might try next:
Swapping out that Romulan Console for my trusty old MK XII purple Neutronium, and swapping out one of the Ambiplasma Envelopes for another Antiproton Mag Regulator.
Rearranging skill points so I spend a few on Attack Patterns and Driver Coil.
Finding some DOFFs that will help with the Tac DOFF cooldown.
Anyways. I think a big apart of the problem may be balance. But here's my idea:
The game has certain things you can't participate in (like new Romulus) until you're level 50. So why not have certain things you can't participate in AFTER a certain level. I would say have Pvp divided into ranks starting at captain level. Only captain levels can que up. one for RA and one for VA pre-level 50. Hard core is for lvl 50. I've also heard rumors of possible level cap increases and what that might look like. How about going to level 55, with those last 5 levels tied to your advancement in the rep system. Actually that might keep things TOO boring. Maybe just say hard core Pvp is open to anybody above Lvl 50, but at your own risk. At least this way, if you've taken advantage of the lower level PvP you may have learned enough to work on your skill in the harcore Pvp.
May not solve the problem completely, but it might go along ways to helping. Or maybe you can't move into the next level until you hit the right rank AND have scored so many kills, so much DPS or something, just so there is a sense of fairness (everyones the same rank), as well as a reasonable presumption of minimum skill readiness (scored so much whatever).
Don't even bother with PvP.
All you get is elitest PvP fleets with more entitlement to have fun than mere mortals like us.
Rolling up the queues with their cheese and cheats. Yes I said it, there seems to be a few who enjoy using broken mechanics like stacking multiple SNBs on one target, causing countdowns to either stick at 2 minutes for a stupid length of time to actually throwing countdowns upto 6+ minutes.
Its pathetic frankly.
That's why no ones interested.
That's why so many PvPers have left as well.
Just don't even bother, its not worth the time, money and hassle just to get rofl'd by a premade over and over again!
You're making progress, better then the build you were working with before, although I still would recommend all energy damage consoles even if using a torp.
As for doffs its not that hard if you filter other factions boffs out with the new option at the bottom of the exchange window then select rarity, you should check very rares first, then if price is to high search for rare doffs of that category.
Something to keep in mind with this - is taking a look at some of the math involved.
A Torp with no consoles can hit Hull harder than Energy with 4 consoles (I think it was 4, I don't have a 5 console ship to have done any testing - so it had to have been 4).
Likewise, Energy with no consoles can hit Shields harder than a Torp with 4 consoles.
Personally, I wouldn't give up an Energy console for a Projectile console. Course, on a boat with 4(+) Tac consoles - I could see giving up one for a Universal console if I felt that it provided a larger benefit. I dropped an Energy for the Nukara on a 4 Tac ship - running Beams, the +10% Accuracy was more important to me than another +28.1-30.0% base (TRIBBLE/Mk 0) damage. If I don't hit, I'm not doing any damage anyway...
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Duty_officer
Might not be entirely up to date, with the amount of changes the devs make to stuff, but it'll at least give you a good idea of what's what.
Wait.. I don't recall seeing one of these:
Think about this:
American Football has been in open beta for 144 years. ~Kotaku