Once, we finished closing all of the rifts about 1 minute before the clock deadline ... and during that minute no rift at all spawned so I guess 83 is the maximum.
No, 83 is definitely not max, we got 98, I still have the box. I think that may be the highest possible:
35 Rifts
15 Construction
10 Health
5 Boss Timer
x1.5 Elite = 98.
I'm liking the "do laps in opposing directions" strategy. If you call quadrants or sides, people get too rigid. One area can be going to hell, but people will just keep patrolling where they already have it under control. If you do laps, you will naturally tend to bog down in the areas that need the most help. As said before, prioritize rifts especially if you're a Sci ship. Get those things closed, and worry about the power stations only as opportunity allows.
Quantum absorption have always worked perfectly fine on my Scimitar ... which pets have you got?
I've noted two scenarios where you can get interrupted while using Quantum Absorbtion.
1: you take so much fire the quantum bubble pops.
2: you get hit with a photonic shockwave torpedo. I think it's a temporary disable effect that does it here as my power tray blinks grey for a second when I get hit. On the upside, once they fire it you can just restart and forget about it. The AIs seem to have the same cooldown on photonic showave torps that players do.
No, 83 is definitely not max, we got 98, I still have the box. I think that may be the highest possible:
35 Rifts
15 Construction
10 Health
5 Boss Timer
x1.5 Elite = 98.
Did you happen to catch how many rifts closed were required to get the +35 rifts score? After +20 it seems to go up as each extra +5 requires 10 more rifts or something thereabouts.
20 rifts closed is the max you get credit for isn't it?
It is on regular anyway.
You get 20 marks for closing 26 rifts total. 25 rifts closed gets you 15. After that it appears to be 5 more marks per 10 rifts closed, so 25 marks for 36, which is the best I've done. Event that requires some chicanery with PUGs, though. Unless it gets more lenient after that, I would suspect that doffingcomrade's 35 marks required 56 rifts closed, which is a crazy amount.
Good news is that I did a run with the 10k channel guys and we closed 26 rifts 3 minutes before the time expired ... and no rift opened afterwards so I guess 26 is maximum.
Bad news is that we got 74 marks ... bug?
My guess on the missing mark here would be the station dipping to 90%. Only thing that I can think of that would cost you just 1 mark.
This is an MMO, not a Star Trek episode simulator. That would make for a terrible game.
Did you happen to catch how many rifts closed were required to get the +35 rifts score? After +20 it seems to go up as each extra +5 requires 10 more rifts or something thereabouts.
At least 56, I'm keeping track of exactly how many it goes to next time.
2: you get hit with a photonic shockwave torpedo. I think it's a temporary disable effect that does it here as my power tray blinks grey for a second when I get hit. On the upside, once they fire it you can just restart and forget about it. The AIs seem to have the same cooldown on photonic showave torps that players do.
Aux2Damp counters this: You will be immune to that while Aux2Damped, which is what I run on some of my rifters. It also makes you faster, helping you rift moar! If stack one of the immunity options above, and Aux2Damp + PH, very little is gonna stop you from getting the job done.
Quantum absorption have always worked perfectly fine on my Scimitar ... which pets have you got?
I am using the Chel Grett with my Klingon tac ... the Chel Grett is a sci-tac ship, therefore it closes rifts faster and it's a fast good-turning powerful ship ... here's why ...
I've made 3 runs with the 10k DPS channel guys and we always hit 83 marks.
Once, we finished closing all of the rifts about 1 minute before the clock deadline ... and during that minute no rift at all spawned so I guess 83 is the maximum.
The advanced drones.
I still don't know how or why it happens. On de D'Deridex it hasn't failed once. On the Scimitar, if I use it three times (mere example), at least in one of them I get interrupted.
The fun thing is I seen to get lower results with every run.
The first few days the event worked just fine with randoms, even on elite.
But it gets more painful with every day, because it seems most people decide its a good idea to ignore the rifts. Just yesterday the station got knocked out on 6 of 7 runs on NORMAL.
And usually with aboout 7- 10 rifts closed, 5-8 of those closed by me.
I mean the mission is not all that complicated, but it seems it be to much for the average player
That makes the daily grind kind of frustrating.
Yesterday I was actually thinking at some point that I should just cloak , watch tv and wait for the dreadnought, the results couldn't have been worst.
And I think I might know why. I for one like the event, but it's becoming more and more infuriating everyday, especially doing it on 6 toons, because you get interrupted constantly while closing the rifts for whatever damage and at whatever percentage of the rift's closure you are. If this means little when I'm flying some of my ships because they have the firepower to resolve it quickly, on others it means another minute of going around engaging and then return to close the rift, and probably being interrupted again by ships from another rift that overlaps the 10km radius.
I still haven't given up, I keep closing them, but I suppose that most people have just came to the conclusion that they don't want to keep going at it.
No, 83 is definitely not max, we got 98, I still have the box. I think that may be the highest possible:
35 Rifts
15 Construction
10 Health
5 Boss Timer
x1.5 Elite = 98.
35 rifts ???
Yesterday , very often , we've been closing about 23-25 rifts about 3-4 minutes before the Mirror Dreadnought and, for 3-4 minutes, no rift was opening anymore ... maybe one or two if you are lucky.
As this is about strategy I thought I'd pop in and say something.
If you see ships trapped in GWs do not use TBR. It should go without saying but apparently it needs to be said. Last night I was in a few groups with players doing this.
As this is about strategy I thought I'd pop in and say something.
If you see ships trapped in GWs do not use TBR. It should go without saying but apparently it needs to be said. Last night I was in a few groups with players doing this.
A major problem is the station spamming TBR over and over. That is really annoying.
Especially with a low turning ship.... you finally have your enemy in front of you and hooopsidu.... its behind you again :mad:
35 rifts ???
Yesterday , very often , we've been closing about 23-25 rifts about 3-4 minutes before the Mirror Dreadnought and, for 3-4 minutes, no rift was opening anymore ... maybe one or two if you are lucky.
No, 35 *POINTS* for Rifts. This is apparently achieved at 56 rifts, as hitting 66 rifts did not increase the score. Even 76 didn't do it. So 56 is enough.
The advanced drones.
I still don't know how or why it happens. On de D'Deridex it hasn't failed once. On the Scimitar, if I use it three times (mere example), at least in one of them I get interrupted.
Actually, I think I may have figured it out... may. It might be the sub-system disable proc from the enemy phasers that does it.
I can say straight up cannon-scorts aren't worth a damn in this mission. My Prometheus does OK with Grav Well, but my KDF's Peghqu' and my Rom's Ha'feh can't do TRIBBLE. Without Grav Well to hold groups in place, they scatter and you can't keep more than 1 of them in CSV's cone. So you're stuck picking them off one at a time, which takes too long. Even the Prometheus was outperformed when I swapped into my Excelsior and started rocking the FAW spam. My Sci's Vesta does best of all still, throwing out GW3 on reduced CD, and getting the bonus to rift closing.
So there you go folks, a PvE map that escorts don't dominate
I can say straight up cannon-scorts aren't worth a damn in this mission.
I would beg to differ; at the beginning they can be quite clutch as with a decent Torp Spread and Cannon:SV, you can wipe the early Miranda Mobs and close the portals quickly.
Also, for the few cruisers/Battle Cruisers that do get through portals, you can focus fire on them if you have C:RF.
FAW and Grav Well can take those early frigates out just as well, and being stuck with cone AoE and no way to group targets together becomes a problem later on. Especially if you're not having the best run and you start having to deal with more than a few ships. Being able to bunch them up and start a chain of core breaches, or just shoot beams in every direction until they all die is considerably more helpful than only being able to shoot a handful of targets that happen to be in front of you. Maybe they're not completely useless, but Sci ships and FAW cruisers still seem to have an easier time of things. At least in my experience, and I've been a died in the wool escort jock for almost my entire time playing the game.
I can say straight up cannon-scorts aren't worth a damn in this mission. My Prometheus does OK with Grav Well, but my KDF's Peghqu' and my Rom's Ha'feh can't do TRIBBLE. Without Grav Well to hold groups in place, they scatter and you can't keep more than 1 of them in CSV's cone. So you're stuck picking them off one at a time, which takes too long. Even the Prometheus was outperformed when I swapped into my Excelsior and started rocking the FAW spam. My Sci's Vesta does best of all still, throwing out GW3 on reduced CD, and getting the bonus to rift closing.
So there you go folks, a PvE map that escorts don't dominate
That goes completely against my experience. In my Escorts, I can make short work of NPCs and don't need to spend all that long, usually leaving enough time to close the rifts afterwards. It only becomes a problem if you let the heavier ships through, of course.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Maybe they're not completely useless, but Sci ships and FAW cruisers still seem to have an easier time of things. At least in my experience, and I've been a died in the wool escort jock for almost my entire time playing the game.
FAW cruisers quickly become overwhelmed by the number of targets that can pile up, and don't score enough vs. major targets to kill quickly. They are, however, wonderful distractions and provide great cover fire for Sci ships to close rifts under. Cannonscorts, particularly in combination with GW, can kill targets lethally quickly, but rely entirely on straight up destruction to clear an area, and provide limited distractionary value...particularly if a Sci ship had to cast that gravwell for them, and has thus attracted unsavory attention.
Sci ships should generally avoid firing any weapons at all, because firing any shots draws that much more attention and makes it that much harder to distract enemies away from you afterwards.
Naturally, if you stack enough FAWboats in one place, you can clear the sky by brute force alone, but the primary value is in distraction.
I can say straight up cannon-scorts aren't worth a damn in this mission. My Prometheus does OK with Grav Well, but my KDF's Peghqu' and my Rom's Ha'feh can't do TRIBBLE. Without Grav Well to hold groups in place, they scatter and you can't keep more than 1 of them in CSV's cone. So you're stuck picking them off one at a time, which takes too long. Even the Prometheus was outperformed when I swapped into my Excelsior and started rocking the FAW spam. My Sci's Vesta does best of all still, throwing out GW3 on reduced CD, and getting the bonus to rift closing.
So there you go folks, a PvE map that escorts don't dominate
I have had escorts grab the agro for me, I then throw out a GW to control the ships for them, close the rift and help with the clean up if there is anything left after the escort has blasted them. Also you can adapt your layout, grab some tractor mines and a dispersal pattern, yes it lowers total DPS but increases control.
This is a team mission after all. It's not about individual damage it's about group work and strategy. One of the few missions which is not all about the pew-pew.
That goes completely against my experience. In my Escorts, I can make short work of NPCs and don't need to spend all that long, usually leaving enough time to close the rifts afterwards. It only becomes a problem if you let the heavier ships through, of course.
Me too.
KDF, using a Qin Raptor is pretty much ownage unless you take on a couple Typhoons at once, even with n00b DHCs. The Mirandas die in seconds anyway. I prefer my Science-y Hegh'ta on my Sci main character, but my newer Tac character has no issues using the Qin. More skills to mow down the weak Mirror ships.
Romulan, i enjoyed the free 'Scort-type warbird (whatever the name is) over a tarted up D'deridex, which can grav well and fire the singularity gadget cannon. And i am just using the free ship until i get my T'varo set up how i want it! So it isnt like i set out to maximize the cannon Escort style. I wanted to run the D'deridex, but i got bored of the slow boat.
I've given up on Starfleet, but i would run it in my Defiant and not the cat carrier.
same here, all 3 of my characters have been doing the event in a cannon build (2 are in escorts, one in a battlecruiser) of various types, and the only ship i have issues with are Typhoons and even then the only time they become a threat is when there are three or more of them all attacking me. other than that, i can usually easily wipeout all enemies then close the rift fairly easily.
same here, all 3 of my characters have been doing the event in a cannon build (2 are in escorts, one in a battlecruiser) of various types, and the only ship i have issues with are Typhoons and even then the only time they become a threat is when there are three or more of them all attacking me. other than that, i can usually easily wipeout all enemies then close the rift fairly easily.
yeah those typhoons have a really mean torp spread that fairly easily strips your shields too...even with full shields and the normal resistance from EPtS, etc...i hardly ever walk away from one with more than 75% hull.
those are alos fairly unpredictable, since in the heat of battle you don't really see them coming and there is a huge time delay between actual impact and the dmg they do.
that means that i fire brace for impact or some other def abilities too late or never, because i see the torps still flying towards me, but suddenly i lose hull and shields, because the impact happened before it is visualy presented to me.
it is not gamebreaking just hugely anoying...as are those rogue torps that seem to interrupt me each and every time i close a rift.
this interruption thing crytic has (or doesn't, like in "the breach" where the sci ships and hangars can be activated even when shot at) is a massive anoyance anyway. Not really making the game harder, just playing the mission more frustrating and anoying.
I can confirm the Vesta Bubble does work. Used it several times without a hitch.
Yes, this seems to be 100% reliable. I bet the Intrepid Ablative Shield Generator is too. I might have to take that for a spin. Main issue is cooldown. But nothing beats it for taking out a large, heavily guarded rift.
The Rom T5 cloak a bit less effective, depends on whether you had inbound damage when you invoke it and whether the enemies can see through it or not (I'm not enhancing it). I'm sure the same goes for any other cloaking ability. But it can give you an alternative while you're waiting for perfect shields to come off cooldown.
I think I want to test out the Steamrunner console, as that should prevent shield bleedthrough and might stop enough attacks to make it worth using -- at least long enough to close a rift, anyway.
Did someone say Quantum Absorption works, too? What else?
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
FAW cruisers quickly become overwhelmed by the number of targets that can pile up, and don't score enough vs. major targets to kill quickly. They are, however, wonderful distractions and provide great cover fire for Sci ships to close rifts under. Cannonscorts, particularly in combination with GW, can kill targets lethally quickly, but rely entirely on straight up destruction to clear an area, and provide limited distractionary value...particularly if a Sci ship had to cast that gravwell for them, and has thus attracted unsavory attention.
If you're going for distraction, you plant yourself in the middle of the pack. If you're trying to kill, you move out toward the edge to limit the number of targets in range. It takes a little positioning, but isn't much of an issue. Controlling where your fire goes is something FAW cruiser captains got down a long time ago.
The problem I've been having is that there's no efficient position for an escort once the groups break formation. If you fail to kill them on the first volley for whatever reason, or you're coming upon a group which has already scattered, you're stuck dogfighting. Time in this mission is so critical, that you can't spend any of it chasing stuff around in circles. The cruiser can engage the entire group, no matter how they scatter, as long as they stay in range (and they will, because they want to shoot you too). The escort can't. The escort is also less able to provide cover for its team mates to go after gates.
Again, I'm not saying you can't do it in escorts. I've been doing it since the event launched mostly in escorts. I'm just saying that when things don't go according to plan, I've had an easier time cleaning it up in the cruiser and Vesta. If you haven't tried it in anything but an escort, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try.
The problem I've been having is that there's no efficient position for an escort once the groups break formation. If you fail to kill them on the first volley for whatever reason, or you're coming upon a group which has already scattered, you're stuck dogfighting. Time in this mission is so critical, that you can't spend any of it chasing stuff around in circles. The cruiser can engage the entire group, no matter how they scatter, as long as they stay in range (and they will, because they want to shoot you too). The escort can't. The escort is also less able to provide cover for its team mates to go after gates.
What about an alternate beamscort loadout? Granted, not as efficient as a cannon setup, but it would take dogfighting out of the equation.
My views may not represent those of Cryptic Studios or Perfect World Entertainment. You can file a "forums and website" support ticket here Link: How to PM - Twitter @STOMod_Bluegeek
I find it far more effective to have this strategy; at the start of the mission, one player goes for the nearest power array, and the other four split into 2 teams. One team closes rifts, and the other activates the remaining power arrays. The idea here is that 1 player from each team goes in first and aggros the NPCs, while the second proceeds with their assigned task. The fifth player, who activated the first array, then acts as needed, closing rifts, activating arrays, destroying npcs, or healing the station, as needed and using their own judgment. Preferably, this player is a cruiser, with heavy tanking ability. Everyone must pay attention to the stations condition. Once it drops to 60%, all players should hightail it for the station and provide heals and buffs to it first and foremost, then proceed to engage the enemy ships. At the end, the heaviest tank/healer should remain at the station while the 2 teams close all the rifts, and then all players may engage and destroy the dreadnaught.
What about an alternate beamscort loadout? Granted, not as efficient as a cannon setup, but it would take dogfighting out of the equation.
I thought about doing that, but I already had cruisers ready to go so I might as well just use them. They get the bonus when powering the satellites too, which never hurts. The advantage, I guess, to having a BeamScort loadout is that you could quickly swap loadouts back to cannons mid match if you felt you needed to.
The FAW guy can FAW and grab agro fine. As a gunScort, i just want to clear enough to grab the rift, and then help finish as needed.
I have done the D'deridex FAW/GW1 boat, and i find it easier to clear with a gunScort. I KNOW someone will shut the rift if i am not the FAW spam person.
I find it far more effective to have this strategy; at the start of the mission, one player goes for the nearest power array, and the other four split into 2 teams. One team closes rifts, and the other activates the remaining power arrays. The idea here is that 1 player from each team goes in first and aggros the NPCs, while the second proceeds with their assigned task. The fifth player, who activated the first array, then acts as needed, closing rifts, activating arrays, destroying npcs, or healing the station, as needed and using their own judgment. Preferably, this player is a cruiser, with heavy tanking ability. Everyone must pay attention to the stations condition. Once it drops to 60%, all players should hightail it for the station and provide heals and buffs to it first and foremost, then proceed to engage the enemy ships. At the end, the heaviest tank/healer should remain at the station while the 2 teams close all the rifts, and then all players may engage and destroy the dreadnaught.
This, but slightly altered....
Round 1 - The Invasion
1 Player- Activate Stations... Cruisers (if available) are excellent for this role since they can activate the arrays faster than other ships. Their other objective is to defend and heal the station (if and whenever necessary) since they usually have good healing abilities (both shield and hull) SciT, TacT, EngT, TSS, HE, A2SIF, etc. I have found that you don't have to activate all 4 arrays each time the station ranks up. There is plenty of time to get to rank 5 before the timer runs out. I do recommend activating 2 arrays for ranks 1 and 2... and 3 arrays each time for ranks 3-5 for the station. If the area around the base is clear, sure, go for 4. This way, the station isn't undefended for too long. If the other team members are keeping the rifts down, then there will not be too much work in defending against the ships that do make it close enough to the base to be a threat. This person will obviously want to get the station to rank 5 as soon as possible in order to make his own job easier. If there are no threats, then this person can simply patrol nearby and keep an eye out for any rifts that pop up away from the teams... and they do from time to time. Sometimes, a little too close to the station for comfort.
2, 2-Member Teams- Closing Rifts... Ideally, each team consisting of an Escort or Cruiser (Beam boats are more effective at grabbing large areas of aggro in this mission, but Cannon builds are able to pick and choose their targets better) and Science ship.The two teams split and each take half of the map. One draws any nearby aggro while the other closes rifts. Of course, Science ships close rifts much faster than other ships, but as long as the second ship in the group maintains aggro, this is not a major issue. Once the Rift is closed, the second team member can help eliminate any ships that do appear. If this is not possible due to aggro, then that job will fall to the single player defending the base. I must say though, that many of the runs I have made, this was not a problem as long as the two players on each team worked together and didn't stay with a single rift for too long. The problem starts when both are trying to close a rift and both have aggro already on them or if a nearby rift spawns ships and that rift is close enough for aggro to be drawn by one or both ships.
The object of this strategy is to keep the fighting away from the station. Granted, there are times when this becomes a problem. There are times when several rifts can appear close to each other. The teams need to be careful and not draw too much aggro in these cases. This is easily solved simply by knowing where to place your ship in relation to the other Rifts.
I have noticed, though, that in cases where one side has more rifts than another, it is not a problem to have both teams on one side of the map and have the single defender in the center simply tank the other side defensively until additional help is needed. If only one side of the station is being attacked, then the defender need only spam Tactical Team or otherwise help keep the shields up... Much easier defending one side as opposed to defending both sides with a single ship.
Round 2 - The Dreadnaught Enters
This part of the mission is pretty straight forward. The object here is to close a new set of rifts and then give the invading dreadnaught a good beat down before the timer expires.
The object of this part of the mission relies on speed. My recommendadion... 2 2-man teams and 1 floater who can assist where needed. One team goes clockwise and the other, counter to that.
Same as before.... 1 person draws aggro while the other closes the rift. At this point of the mission, there is no need to destroy the ships that spawn here... the only ship that will need to be destroyed is the dreadnaught but don't "seriously" attack it until all the rifts are closed. Otherwise, if he takes a good amount of damage, he will disappear through a self-created rift and appear randomly coming from one that has not been closed yet.
The floater is free to assist with the teams (if needed), to stay close and make sure the station stays healed (if needed), or use abilities like TR Beams, Gravity Well, etc. (if applicable) in order to keep the dreadnaught from reaching the station until help arrives to finish it off.
Once the rifts closed, it is a mad-dash to the dreadnaught and finish it off.
-AoP- Warrior's Blood (KDF Armada) / -AoP- Qu' raD qulbo'Degh / -AoP- ProjectPhoenix Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
The easiest way is for four players to take a zone and clear rifts, mopping up any ships that hang around the rifts. The fifth player roves around and mops up any ships at the station. They can clear rifts if there are no ships to kill. When you've managed to clear all rifts, each player power up the station. By the time this happens a few more rifts will have appeared. Clear the rifts again. Nothing but rifts. When they're clear, power the station. Repeat until the station is powered.
Why does this work? Because...
1) If you're powering the station then you're not clearing rifts. If you're not clearing rifts then you're allowing ships to come through. Unchecked rifts will produce ships at a higher rathe than what can be destroyed. This creates a build up situation that guarantees failing to protect the station.
2) There seems to be a finite number of enemies. How can you tell? Because if you do this strategy you'll find that quite often for the two last station power levels there are NO enemies left and NO rifts opening. You'll have ample time to set off your fireworks and look at the station close up. You may actually get bored.
3) Every time I've played and someone has powered the station too early the station has had to repair itself. Goodbye bonus marks. Every time the team has focused on rifts the mission has been easy. Every single time with NO exceptions.
4) Powering the station is easier than closing the rifts. The promise of an easy goal being accomplished has been offered to test players, to lure them in to defeat. Discipline is the key to this mission.
Comments
35 Rifts
15 Construction
10 Health
5 Boss Timer
x1.5 Elite = 98.
1: you take so much fire the quantum bubble pops.
2: you get hit with a photonic shockwave torpedo. I think it's a temporary disable effect that does it here as my power tray blinks grey for a second when I get hit. On the upside, once they fire it you can just restart and forget about it. The AIs seem to have the same cooldown on photonic showave torps that players do.
My character Tsin'xing
Did you happen to catch how many rifts closed were required to get the +35 rifts score? After +20 it seems to go up as each extra +5 requires 10 more rifts or something thereabouts.
My guess on the missing mark here would be the station dipping to 90%. Only thing that I can think of that would cost you just 1 mark.
Aux2Damp counters this: You will be immune to that while Aux2Damped, which is what I run on some of my rifters. It also makes you faster, helping you rift moar! If stack one of the immunity options above, and Aux2Damp + PH, very little is gonna stop you from getting the job done.
The advanced drones.
I still don't know how or why it happens. On de D'Deridex it hasn't failed once. On the Scimitar, if I use it three times (mere example), at least in one of them I get interrupted.
And I think I might know why. I for one like the event, but it's becoming more and more infuriating everyday, especially doing it on 6 toons, because you get interrupted constantly while closing the rifts for whatever damage and at whatever percentage of the rift's closure you are. If this means little when I'm flying some of my ships because they have the firepower to resolve it quickly, on others it means another minute of going around engaging and then return to close the rift, and probably being interrupted again by ships from another rift that overlaps the 10km radius.
I still haven't given up, I keep closing them, but I suppose that most people have just came to the conclusion that they don't want to keep going at it.
35 rifts ???
Yesterday , very often , we've been closing about 23-25 rifts about 3-4 minutes before the Mirror Dreadnought and, for 3-4 minutes, no rift was opening anymore ... maybe one or two if you are lucky.
If you see ships trapped in GWs do not use TBR. It should go without saying but apparently it needs to be said. Last night I was in a few groups with players doing this.
A major problem is the station spamming TBR over and over. That is really annoying.
Especially with a low turning ship.... you finally have your enemy in front of you and hooopsidu.... its behind you again :mad:
My character Tsin'xing
So there you go folks, a PvE map that escorts don't dominate
I would beg to differ; at the beginning they can be quite clutch as with a decent Torp Spread and Cannon:SV, you can wipe the early Miranda Mobs and close the portals quickly.
Also, for the few cruisers/Battle Cruisers that do get through portals, you can focus fire on them if you have C:RF.
There's still a place for them, to be sure.
That goes completely against my experience. In my Escorts, I can make short work of NPCs and don't need to spend all that long, usually leaving enough time to close the rifts afterwards. It only becomes a problem if you let the heavier ships through, of course.
Sci ships should generally avoid firing any weapons at all, because firing any shots draws that much more attention and makes it that much harder to distract enemies away from you afterwards.
Naturally, if you stack enough FAWboats in one place, you can clear the sky by brute force alone, but the primary value is in distraction.
I have had escorts grab the agro for me, I then throw out a GW to control the ships for them, close the rift and help with the clean up if there is anything left after the escort has blasted them. Also you can adapt your layout, grab some tractor mines and a dispersal pattern, yes it lowers total DPS but increases control.
This is a team mission after all. It's not about individual damage it's about group work and strategy. One of the few missions which is not all about the pew-pew.
Me too.
KDF, using a Qin Raptor is pretty much ownage unless you take on a couple Typhoons at once, even with n00b DHCs. The Mirandas die in seconds anyway. I prefer my Science-y Hegh'ta on my Sci main character, but my newer Tac character has no issues using the Qin. More skills to mow down the weak Mirror ships.
Romulan, i enjoyed the free 'Scort-type warbird (whatever the name is) over a tarted up D'deridex, which can grav well and fire the singularity gadget cannon. And i am just using the free ship until i get my T'varo set up how i want it! So it isnt like i set out to maximize the cannon Escort style. I wanted to run the D'deridex, but i got bored of the slow boat.
I've given up on Starfleet, but i would run it in my Defiant and not the cat carrier.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
yeah those typhoons have a really mean torp spread that fairly easily strips your shields too...even with full shields and the normal resistance from EPtS, etc...i hardly ever walk away from one with more than 75% hull.
those are alos fairly unpredictable, since in the heat of battle you don't really see them coming and there is a huge time delay between actual impact and the dmg they do.
that means that i fire brace for impact or some other def abilities too late or never, because i see the torps still flying towards me, but suddenly i lose hull and shields, because the impact happened before it is visualy presented to me.
it is not gamebreaking just hugely anoying...as are those rogue torps that seem to interrupt me each and every time i close a rift.
this interruption thing crytic has (or doesn't, like in "the breach" where the sci ships and hangars can be activated even when shot at) is a massive anoyance anyway. Not really making the game harder, just playing the mission more frustrating and anoying.
Yes, this seems to be 100% reliable. I bet the Intrepid Ablative Shield Generator is too. I might have to take that for a spin. Main issue is cooldown. But nothing beats it for taking out a large, heavily guarded rift.
The Rom T5 cloak a bit less effective, depends on whether you had inbound damage when you invoke it and whether the enemies can see through it or not (I'm not enhancing it). I'm sure the same goes for any other cloaking ability. But it can give you an alternative while you're waiting for perfect shields to come off cooldown.
I think I want to test out the Steamrunner console, as that should prevent shield bleedthrough and might stop enough attacks to make it worth using -- at least long enough to close a rift, anyway.
Did someone say Quantum Absorption works, too? What else?
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If you're going for distraction, you plant yourself in the middle of the pack. If you're trying to kill, you move out toward the edge to limit the number of targets in range. It takes a little positioning, but isn't much of an issue. Controlling where your fire goes is something FAW cruiser captains got down a long time ago.
The problem I've been having is that there's no efficient position for an escort once the groups break formation. If you fail to kill them on the first volley for whatever reason, or you're coming upon a group which has already scattered, you're stuck dogfighting. Time in this mission is so critical, that you can't spend any of it chasing stuff around in circles. The cruiser can engage the entire group, no matter how they scatter, as long as they stay in range (and they will, because they want to shoot you too). The escort can't. The escort is also less able to provide cover for its team mates to go after gates.
Again, I'm not saying you can't do it in escorts. I've been doing it since the event launched mostly in escorts. I'm just saying that when things don't go according to plan, I've had an easier time cleaning it up in the cruiser and Vesta. If you haven't tried it in anything but an escort, it wouldn't be a bad idea to try.
What about an alternate beamscort loadout? Granted, not as efficient as a cannon setup, but it would take dogfighting out of the equation.
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I thought about doing that, but I already had cruisers ready to go so I might as well just use them. They get the bonus when powering the satellites too, which never hurts. The advantage, I guess, to having a BeamScort loadout is that you could quickly swap loadouts back to cannons mid match if you felt you needed to.
I have done the D'deridex FAW/GW1 boat, and i find it easier to clear with a gunScort. I KNOW someone will shut the rift if i am not the FAW spam person.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
It's wonky but deadly.
My character Tsin'xing
This, but slightly altered....
Round 1 - The Invasion
1 Player- Activate Stations... Cruisers (if available) are excellent for this role since they can activate the arrays faster than other ships. Their other objective is to defend and heal the station (if and whenever necessary) since they usually have good healing abilities (both shield and hull) SciT, TacT, EngT, TSS, HE, A2SIF, etc. I have found that you don't have to activate all 4 arrays each time the station ranks up. There is plenty of time to get to rank 5 before the timer runs out. I do recommend activating 2 arrays for ranks 1 and 2... and 3 arrays each time for ranks 3-5 for the station. If the area around the base is clear, sure, go for 4. This way, the station isn't undefended for too long. If the other team members are keeping the rifts down, then there will not be too much work in defending against the ships that do make it close enough to the base to be a threat. This person will obviously want to get the station to rank 5 as soon as possible in order to make his own job easier. If there are no threats, then this person can simply patrol nearby and keep an eye out for any rifts that pop up away from the teams... and they do from time to time. Sometimes, a little too close to the station for comfort.
2, 2-Member Teams- Closing Rifts... Ideally, each team consisting of an Escort or Cruiser (Beam boats are more effective at grabbing large areas of aggro in this mission, but Cannon builds are able to pick and choose their targets better) and Science ship.The two teams split and each take half of the map. One draws any nearby aggro while the other closes rifts. Of course, Science ships close rifts much faster than other ships, but as long as the second ship in the group maintains aggro, this is not a major issue. Once the Rift is closed, the second team member can help eliminate any ships that do appear. If this is not possible due to aggro, then that job will fall to the single player defending the base. I must say though, that many of the runs I have made, this was not a problem as long as the two players on each team worked together and didn't stay with a single rift for too long. The problem starts when both are trying to close a rift and both have aggro already on them or if a nearby rift spawns ships and that rift is close enough for aggro to be drawn by one or both ships.
The object of this strategy is to keep the fighting away from the station. Granted, there are times when this becomes a problem. There are times when several rifts can appear close to each other. The teams need to be careful and not draw too much aggro in these cases. This is easily solved simply by knowing where to place your ship in relation to the other Rifts.
I have noticed, though, that in cases where one side has more rifts than another, it is not a problem to have both teams on one side of the map and have the single defender in the center simply tank the other side defensively until additional help is needed. If only one side of the station is being attacked, then the defender need only spam Tactical Team or otherwise help keep the shields up... Much easier defending one side as opposed to defending both sides with a single ship.
Round 2 - The Dreadnaught Enters
This part of the mission is pretty straight forward. The object here is to close a new set of rifts and then give the invading dreadnaught a good beat down before the timer expires.
The object of this part of the mission relies on speed. My recommendadion... 2 2-man teams and 1 floater who can assist where needed. One team goes clockwise and the other, counter to that.
Same as before.... 1 person draws aggro while the other closes the rift. At this point of the mission, there is no need to destroy the ships that spawn here... the only ship that will need to be destroyed is the dreadnaught but don't "seriously" attack it until all the rifts are closed. Otherwise, if he takes a good amount of damage, he will disappear through a self-created rift and appear randomly coming from one that has not been closed yet.
The floater is free to assist with the teams (if needed), to stay close and make sure the station stays healed (if needed), or use abilities like TR Beams, Gravity Well, etc. (if applicable) in order to keep the dreadnaught from reaching the station until help arrives to finish it off.
Once the rifts closed, it is a mad-dash to the dreadnaught and finish it off.
Join Date: Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Why does this work? Because...
1) If you're powering the station then you're not clearing rifts. If you're not clearing rifts then you're allowing ships to come through. Unchecked rifts will produce ships at a higher rathe than what can be destroyed. This creates a build up situation that guarantees failing to protect the station.
2) There seems to be a finite number of enemies. How can you tell? Because if you do this strategy you'll find that quite often for the two last station power levels there are NO enemies left and NO rifts opening. You'll have ample time to set off your fireworks and look at the station close up. You may actually get bored.
3) Every time I've played and someone has powered the station too early the station has had to repair itself. Goodbye bonus marks. Every time the team has focused on rifts the mission has been easy. Every single time with NO exceptions.
4) Powering the station is easier than closing the rifts. The promise of an easy goal being accomplished has been offered to test players, to lure them in to defeat. Discipline is the key to this mission.