Is it my imagination or have STFs become too hard for normal level 50s...?

macarthur1961 · November 2013

I noted when the Borg started using our weap power to heal their shlds recently, but since last week's patch, it seems as tho our shlds have also lost strength...am I wrong...?
It is one thing to have to babysit the WEAK Obelisk ships now flooding Elite STFs with my Avengers, but if my shlds don't hold, I can't help them and am forced to suffer frustrating losses because of them, other weak ships [now that ESTFs are tougher] AND STILL from intellectually lazy folks whom refuse to read up on such missions before they enter them [CCE is especially bad for this atm]...
Can maybe someone think about tiering Qs to abilities...? I used to rescue ESTFs in my Fleet Defiants [one is called USS STF Rescue1] but Avenger now makes even them look sad... so... I hope this is temporay as myself and MANY of my ESTF friends have had to take a break from game alot over last few days due to this SERIOUS frustration...
I have gone from most experienced STO ESTF player in all of game to one that may soon never do an ESTF again with pugz... so who will help guide and inform them then... nowdays, with grinding, few even stick around for a,"GG" at end of mission... so Noobs have few others besides me to help make them better so we don't have to suffer repeats of their mistakes...
Hmmm... what about a MANDATORY ESTF tutorial...? Hmmm...?
That being said, Devs have OUTDONE themselves with Sphere of Influence...!! Hope it is a sign of new season...!! [and yes, Obelisk ships CAN be high dps if built properly...but it is rare to see one so] :cool:

rattler2 · November 2013

Every time Cryptic fixes something, it seems to break the Borg.
Also... Any ship can be a BAMF as long as its set up properly. There's also experience and communication that should come into play.
A tutorial doesn't prepare anyone for running with PUGs though. Just a basic idea of what to do, which technically comes from Normal STFs.

And yes... the Devs did an awesome job with the new mission.

macronius · November 2013

I really think they stealth buffed STFs recently (last couple of weeks or so). Borg torpedoes are shredding my Vesta's hull even with armor consoles. Not really a challenge as much as it is annoying to be hit by insta-crit invisi-torpedoes of doom every once and a while.

I swear these devs have no idea what pressure damage actually is. It is all alpha strikes and burst damage.

rattler2 · November 2013

Invisitorps... gotta love 'em.

macarthur1961 · November 2013

macronius wrote: »

I really think they stealth buffed STFs recently (last couple of weeks or so). Borg torpedoes are shredding my Vesta's hull even with armor consoles. Not really a challenge as much as it is annoying to be hit by insta-crit invisi-torpedoes of doom every once and a while.

I swear these devs have no idea what pressure damage actually is. It is all alpha strikes and burst damage.

LOL your experience seems to mirror my friends and mine... BUT... I have faith this is just some kind of oversight/overtweak and will be fixed if they are aware of how it is negatively affecting things... HERE'S HOPIN' anyway...!! lol
:cool:

ladymyajha · November 2013

macronius wrote: »

I really think they stealth buffed STFs recently (last couple of weeks or so). Borg torpedoes are shredding my Vesta's hull even with armor consoles. Not really a challenge as much as it is annoying to be hit by insta-crit invisi-torpedoes of doom every once and a while.

I swear these devs have no idea what pressure damage actually is. It is all alpha strikes and burst damage.

Yeah I don't think they buffed anything. I think the broke the borg again, as others have said. Invisi-torps of death are not new, they became rarer since a "fix" a few patches ago, but they seem to be making a return.

macronius · November 2013

ladymyajha wrote: »

Yeah I don't think they buffed anything. I think the broke the borg again, as others have said. Invisi-torps of death are not new, they became rarer since a "fix" a few patches ago, but they seem to be making a return.

"Tin foil hat on". I had assumed this was them re-balancing the game to compensate for the massive - massive power creep they keep adding (is creep the right word even)? Maybe you are right though. Maybe it is just devs being silly ... silly devs bugs are for kids.

macarthur1961 · November 2013

macronius wrote: »

"Tin foil hat on". I had assumed this was them re-balancing the game to compensate for the massive - massive power creep they keep adding (is creep the right word even)? Maybe you are right though. Maybe it is just devs being silly ... silly devs bugs are for kids.

MEGA ROLF...!!!
:cool:

thunderfoot · November 2013

The only time I seem to die in a Space STF any more is when I either:

1) Do something really stupid.

2) Get so target fixated I forget to check the status of my ship.
(Avenger with complete Fleet Gear. Captained by an Engineer and specced out to be a tank.)

3) I lose Situational Awareness. Which amounts to doing something really stupid

The AI seems to still "come on in the same old way". So I can still "beat them in the same old way." Apologies to Lord Wellington are in order here.

The Obelisk which everyone seems to have now does what all carriers do. An Obelisk manned by a poor Captain is just as bad as any other ship manned by a poor Captain. Don't blame the ship for the Captain's shortcomings or lack of experience.

diotw · November 2013

I only recently started attempting Elite STFs (and only Cure Space Elite, as it's the one I've played most on Normal), but I have to say I've noticed that there is a huge step up in damage dealt. I played quite a lot of Cure Space Normal, and it was fairly rare for me to have to fire up multiple healing abilities in one go. On Elite, I've seen my hull get knocked from 100% to under 25% in a matter of seconds, with barely any time to respond with abilities before the next round of attacks hit.

daskippa · November 2013

There's been a couple of times in the last couple days I've had people go poof on me b4 I can even get the heal off. one a scim, the other a fleet haprh..feh...beh whatever you call it. both full hull, thinned shields though. I had assumed server lag, thought the inviso torp was fixed?

lan451 · November 2013

I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary really. Although I have noticed that my team mates are blowing up a whole lot more than before. I just attributed it to STF newbies, but I might have to take another look at it later.

macronius · November 2013

diotw wrote: »

I only recently started attempting Elite STFs (and only Cure Space Elite, as it's the one I've played most on Normal), but I have to say I've noticed that there is a huge step up in damage dealt. I played quite a lot of Cure Space Normal, and it was fairly rare for me to have to fire up multiple healing abilities in one go. On Elite, I've seen my hull get knocked from 100% to under 25% in a matter of seconds, with barely any time to respond with abilities before the next round of attacks hit.

Good shields help a lot. Resilient is your best bet and bring at least 1 copy of hazard emitters. You will need some points in power insulators to reduce the shield drain.

It is not really hard so much as it is annoying. I always find pressure damage and timers to be a whole more interesting than ... zomg-you're-dead mechanics.

rodentmaster · November 2013

In the past few days there has been a MASSIVE spike in the damage output in ESTFs. My shields have been freaking shredded and my hull instantly gone so many times in the past few days -- it's unstoppable, it's unpredictable, it's total BS.

I even had an instant death on KASE that had me flummoxed. The near cube over the transformer instantly put tractor on me and I DIED through full hull and shields. I seriously thought "WHAT?!@?!?!?!?!!!!11!??~?" and only later did I check the combat log and find it was an instant killer from the gate.... which was OUTSIDE firing range from me! I was on the FAR SIDE of the cube.

I'm also noticing that CCE is instantly hitting people and doing massive tons of damage PAST 10K. I was getting freaking hit tons while dealing with some Tholians and thought "Oh, I've got too close to the CCE, I need to reposition" -- but when I looked I was 11.4K away AND STILL being reamed!!! I was seriously being hammered, too.

Apparently Cryptic's new damage model is to make it all kill you outside of your range to defend yourself and do it before you can heal yourself. So everything is as royally FUBARed as HSE is.

Way to go, Cryptic. Way to go. (*golf clap*)

macronius · November 2013

The hamster has got to have a reason to run the grind wheel. Lots of power creep requires lots of buffs to NPC damage + millions of hitpoints. Honestly, I kind of feel bad for noobs who wonder into ESTFs. Not for the loss of DPS to the team ... but the nasty experience they are sure to have.

We actually saw a preview of things to come with CC(Crystalline Catastrophe) event. They made so ridiculously over the top that only the elite players could do it every time or it tooks hours to run. There was a ****-sort on the forum and they had to backstep it.

rodentmaster wrote: »

In the past few days there has been a MASSIVE spike in the damage output in ESTFs. My shields have been freaking shredded and my hull instantly gone so many times in the past few days -- it's unstoppable, it's unpredictable, it's total BS.

I even had an instant death on KASE that had me flummoxed. The near cube over the transformer instantly put tractor on me and I DIED through full hull and shields. I seriously thought "WHAT?!@?!?!?!?!!!!11!??~?" and only later did I check the combat log and find it was an instant killer from the gate.... which was OUTSIDE firing range from me! I was on the FAR SIDE of the cube.

I'm also noticing that CCE is instantly hitting people and doing massive tons of damage PAST 10K. I was getting freaking hit tons while dealing with some Tholians and thought "Oh, I've got too close to the CCE, I need to reposition" -- but when I looked I was 11.4K away AND STILL being reamed!!! I was seriously being hammered, too.

Apparently Cryptic's new damage model is to make it all kill you outside of your range to defend yourself and do it before you can heal yourself. So everything is as royally FUBARed as HSE is.

Way to go, Cryptic. Way to go. (*golf clap*)

daskippa · November 2013

lol next Lockbox, no ships no lobi just chance at a doff box or a borg wth torp defence console. They'd make a killing as often as this thing re-appears

(if it is actually happening again, don't have the log)

rodentmaster · November 2013

No. That's not a valid defense. Just because ROM are broken as an entire faction doesn't negate the 90% of the game NOT running rom.

EVERY other person in this game running fed or KDF and using existing ships, ships they got from fleet shipyards, or from the z-store, in the BEST builds the game can provide, with skills honed from years of play, are suddenly being shredded instantly.

There is no valid excuse for that. You can't kill 90% of the game to pretend to cater to 10%. It doesn't even solve the power creep problem. It's not making the borg harder to kill, thus requiring more DPS to kill them -- it's making them instantly kill you regardless.

So on several areas, your defense for Cryptic's nonsense doesn't hold any water. I'm sorry, you can't defend them forever. They're trying to ruin the game and eventually will succeed.

ladymyajha · November 2013

rodentmaster wrote: »

No. That's not a valid defense. Just because ROM are broken as an entire faction doesn't negate the 90% of the game NOT running rom.

EVERY other person in this game running fed or KDF and using existing ships, ships they got from fleet shipyards, or from the z-store, in the BEST builds the game can provide, with skills honed from years of play, are suddenly being shredded instantly.

There is no valid excuse for that. You can't kill 90% of the game to pretend to cater to 10%. It doesn't even solve the power creep problem. It's not making the borg harder to kill, thus requiring more DPS to kill them -- it's making them instantly kill you regardless.

So on several areas, your defense for Cryptic's nonsense doesn't hold any water. I'm sorry, you can't defend them forever. They're trying to ruin the game and eventually will succeed.

Trust me, I have a tank cruiser that could pretty much take everything the game threw at me and laugh back at with only my paint scratched go from full shields and full hull to zero in one hit. So I know the pain.

However I don't think it's Cryptic doing it on purpose. I honestly think they've just reintroduced a bunch of bugs that they squashed earlier, and they're creeping back in. I've seen my combat logs, and seen the invsi-torp damage, and I know that invsi-torps aren't supposed to be in the game.

My guess is when they did a patch, they inadvertently used old code, and removed a "fix"

daskippa · November 2013

ladymyajha wrote: »

Trust me, I have a tank cruiser that could pretty much take everything the game threw at me and laugh back at with only my paint scratched go from full shields and full hull to zero in one hit. So I know the pain.

However I don't think it's Cryptic doing it on purpose. I honestly think they've just reintroduced a bunch of bugs that they squashed earlier, and they're creeping back in. I've seen my combat logs, and seen the invsi-torp damage, and I know that invsi-torps aren't supposed to be in the game.

My guess is when they did a patch, they inadvertently used old code, and removed a "fix"

Not trying to sound snarky or critical, but I wonder how many times we're going to see the terms version control again soon.

futurepastnow · November 2013

Can't say I've noticed any change.

dahminus · November 2013

A few weeks ago I thought they were buffed as well...ran two separate times on my main and once on my alt.

They are over geared and do 10-20k dps over the course of ise.

Spheres were ripping them to shreds, other people were saying the same thing while others reported no difference.

The next day and each following....everything was back to normal (still elite, but back to roflstomping normal).

Was weird; some say a random instance can occur where everything is super charged...a neo if an instance...I don't know if it's true or not, but to have experienced something to that effect, I am more believing then disbelieving.

CCE requires more debuffing then letting small shards get back to the entity...doesn't take long for it to get out of control and start 1 shotting cruisers

jetwtf · November 2013

Only thing I noticed unusual is Donatra hits harder than before. I used to be able to shrug her Thalaron off in my FACR but tonight I wasnt paying attention and she got me with an insta kill. Copy and pasted to my fleet for a good laugh, still in my clipboard: I.R.W. Valdore deals 102742 (117414) Radiation Damage to you with Thalaron Pulse.

The invisa torps have been bad for a few weeks on my alts that have no insulators, get hit with tachyon for atleast half shields stripped and guaranteed 20k no crit invisa torp and plasma burn that is far more severe than normal OR a 50k+ invisa torp crit. That is a guarantee and not a might happen, have 2 characters without insulator skill points and it happens every single time half shields are stripped without fail. Also another thing about not having the skill points is you will get every sphere gate and tac cube hitting you with tachyon if you are in target range when the last transformer pops in ISE. I couldnt even see my ship through all the blue stuff lol. Never happens on my captains with 6 insulator skill points. maybe 2 at a time and thats rare, usualy just a single feeble attempt.

macronius · November 2013

jetwtf wrote: »

Only thing I noticed unusual is Donatra hits harder than before. I used to be able to shrug her Thalaron off in my FACR but tonight I wasnt paying attention and she got me with an insta kill. Copy and pasted to my fleet for a good laugh, still in my clipboard: I.R.W. Valdore deals 102742 (117414) Radiation Damage to you with Thalaron Pulse.

The invisa torps have been bad for a few weeks on my alts that have no insulators, get hit with tachyon for atleast half shields stripped and guaranteed 20k no crit invisa torp and plasma burn that is far more severe than normal OR a 50k+ invisa torp crit. That is a guarantee and not a might happen, have 2 characters without insulator skill points and it happens every single time half shields are stripped without fail. Also another thing about not having the skill points is you will get every sphere gate and tac cube hitting you with tachyon if you are in target range when the last transformer pops in ISE. I couldnt even see my ship through all the blue stuff lol. Never happens on my captains with 6 insulator skill points. maybe 2 at a time and thats rare, usualy just a single feeble attempt.

Well I have 6 points on my Vesta of shield insulator and borg shield drains still do their magic. I wish we could make a sci build like that for PvP. I guess we shall see tomorrow. I predict that once they get the servers working ... after a few days of chaos ... you will see more of these "buffs".

tonyalmeida2 · November 2013

They're still a joke. Completion of optional under 3 minutes on ise and cse. EZ

jetwtf · November 2013

macronius wrote: »

Well I have 6 points on my Vesta of shield insulator and borg shield drains still do their magic. I wish we could make a sci build like that for PvP. I guess we shall see tomorrow. I predict that once they get the servers working ... after a few days of chaos ... you will see more of these "buffs".

Avoid using an EPTX ability near borg and they fire off Tachyon far less. hit one and put EPTS into cooldown and they will instantly zap you with tachyon. If i dont have EPTS on a character i do not use any EPTX ability I do have just to keep from being zapped by tachyon beams from hell.

With 6 power insulator skill points and more points from consoles or deflector used then hitting EPTS if 2 borg tachyon is used should stop the drain in its tracks, 3 and maybe lose 1/16th shield. Atleast it does for my FACR/engi character.

You are correct players version of Tachyon beam sucks like a hoover vacuum being tossed out an airlock. Practicaly useless in PvE even maxed skill and consoles buffing to over 200 points. As for PvP everyone has power insulators to atleast 6 points and thats enough to make players tachyon useless. And I have yet to get a 20k non crit invisable plasma torp + magic plasma burn everytime when using my tachyon, must be borg magic OR the devs think thats a good challenge mechanic for PvE.

warpet · November 2013

do not go to fire range of gates and should be fine they hit my JHDC 110000k y day..... but this is nothing new they knowed to hit 48k+while full shields with torp before

notapwefan · November 2013

Looks like borgs in gates are on steroids.

ruminate00 · November 2013

warpet wrote: »

do not go to fire range of gates and should be fine they hit my JHDC 110000k y day..... but this is nothing new they knowed to hit 48k+while full shields with torp before

This.

Months ago, I would position myself out of range of the gateway's attacks, but close enough so that I can attack it. Since I always had the highest threat, the gateway would target me the entire time and be unable to hit anything.

Nowadays, the gateway switches to someone else if the person with the highest threat isn't in range. The gateway would then proceed to ram a torpedo up their unsuspecting aft and blow them up.

What this means is people were being carried without realizing it.

adamkafei · November 2013

I haven't had any problems, my eng/cruiser is still solo Kang guarding (all stages) on elite and my Tac/scort still can't manage to match it :P

So far as I am concerned, the Borg are still pathetically weak.

angrytarg · November 2013

I actually did raise an eyebrow a few times when I played a ESTF recently but I couldn't point my finger on what it was. I just noticed that I died more often in my Mirror Raptor Klingon and Nebula-R Sci, recieving quite a few deadly criticals and thus insta-popped. Though I cannot note any difference in Borg behaviour (except for a Cube that full impulsed from side to the other in KSE today

) and thus assumed it was just bad luck.

kublahkan · November 2013

Well good to know. I was seriously wondering what the hell was happening lol.
I've just switched a BOff skill to see how it would work and I was getting my bottom solidly kicked.

I have to say it gave me some exciting times spamming Miracle Worker... :P

Haven't tried Elite STFs yet because I still feel a bit under geared but with this I think I'll be a little more patient...

Maybe the Borg assimilated some Red Bull chemist or something...

Is it my imagination or have STFs become too hard for normal level 50s...?

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