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refracting weapons feedback

threat21threat21 Member Posts: 300
The idea is cool, but in practice, the 2.5% proc rate on the rep store weapons makes them kinda bleh, especially considering the damage to hit the 2nd target is so weak, however base damage the turrets output 105.9 at the mk XII level but have a chance to proc 158.7 damage to a 2nd target. That just seems... weird.

Maybe if the proc rate to hit a 2nd target was 10-20% id find the weapons worth using, but overall ive never been a fan of tetryon weapons, and these don't really entice me to use them.
Post edited by threat21 on

Comments

  • alienfrombeyondalienfrombeyond Member Posts: 141 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Yeah, at regular proc rate it's incredibly unimpressive, as it's only useful against large groups of enemies, and they'll usually be AoE'd down from regular damage before the proc does anything of note. And the range of the chain is crappy too. If the dual beam bank set item that always refracts was just a regular beam array it might be worth using, but even a full suite of 8 always refracting tetryon beams doesn't seem that great over romulan plasma with the amazing synergy of its double procs.

    Perhaps let the chain hit allow damage on your main target at reduced damage if there are no other valid bounce targets in range? Or significantly increase the seek range on the bounce.
  • emacsheadroomemacsheadroom Member Posts: 994 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Once again a proc that benefits cannons and only cannons. Imagine CRF and CSV with refracting tetryon cannons and turrets. Your dps will be multiplied by a fair margin.
  • stirling191stirling191 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Once again a proc that benefits cannons and only cannons. Imagine CRF and CSV with refracting tetryon cannons and turrets. Your dps will be multiplied by a fair margin.

    And it won't be on a FAW boat?
  • raptor63549raptor63549 Member Posts: 642 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Procs as a whole benefit cannons more than beams.
    I can't think of a single proc that doesn't benefit cannons more than beams.
  • dalnar83dalnar83 Member Posts: 2,420 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Procs as a whole benefit cannons more than beams.
    I can't think of a single proc that doesn't benefit cannons more than beams.

    I can't think of any mechanics that benefits beams :rolleyes:
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  • kasandarokasandaro Member Posts: 198 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    dalnar83 wrote: »
    I can't think of any mechanics that benefits beams :rolleyes:

    Target Subsytems attacks? Oh, wait. We know how effective those are, especially the Sciboat/Carrier versions.
  • dalnar83dalnar83 Member Posts: 2,420 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    I mean mechanics, like proc rates, per hit benefits, weapon energy drain, fire cycles etc, not abilities. And I can assure you that if cannons were given subsystem targetting, most people would not bother with beam weapon for it :p
    "Cryptic Studio’s Jack Emmert (2010): Microtransactions are the biggest bunch of nonsense. I like paying one fee and not worrying about it – like my cellphone. The world’s biggest MMO isn’t item based, even though the black market item GDP is bigger than Russia … microtransactions make me want to die.”
  • naeviusnaevius Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Procs as a whole benefit cannons more than beams.

    Why? Proc chance is per firing cycle - each beam cycle has the same chance as a cannon cycle. It is not based on pulses (shots).

    Now, if you want to argue that cannons benefit more because they can put more damage on the target while the proc is active, that is another issue.
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  • momawmomaw Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    naevius wrote: »
    Why? Proc chance is per firing cycle - each beam cycle has the same chance as a cannon cycle. It is not based on pulses (shots).

    Yeah? Beams have a 5 seconds firing cycle, cannons have 4 seconds. Cannons = more procs.
  • neok182neok182 Member Posts: 551 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    I see absolutely no reason to use the basic refracting tetryon. you do less damage compared to advanced fleet, and 2.5% is not very great at all.

    Now, the hyper refracting i do like since it always has the proc, and though it's still not a great ability, add in the console and you get bonus points to shield drain and +7.6% tetryon damage.

    but the basic refracting weapons really don't seem worth it compared to fleet.
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  • dave18193dave18193 Member Posts: 416 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Overjoyed that the Hyper Dual Beam Bank has [Accx2]. Awesomeness, especially since the console also boosts beam accuracy. That'll definitely be on the to get list.

    As to the standard refracting tets, eg dual heavies. I was quite excited with them at first, but after some quick rough math I dont think theyll be worth the enormous asking price for MkXII. A 2.5% chance to proc, and inflict inconsequential damage to an enemy if its within a tiny range.

    If the range was larger, damage was larger, proc chance was higher then maybe. But 28k Dil per weapon, as well as losing two (admittedly also rubbish) DMG procs. Shelling out an extra 18k per weapon on four DHC's which could be converted into zen doesnt appeal.

    It would be about right, I think, if it was guaranteed to refract and hit anything in 10km. Or maybe 25%, and if theres nothing else in range it does extra damage to the original target.
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  • matridunadan1matridunadan1 Member Posts: 579 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    momaw wrote: »
    Yeah? Beams have a 5 seconds firing cycle, cannons have 4 seconds. Cannons = more procs.

    Actually, the cannons have a 2-3 second fire cycle.
  • szerontzurszerontzur Member Posts: 2,724 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Finally got a chance to play around with them.

    As far as standard reputation weapons go, they're a little underwhelming. The sets are pretty interesting though. Combining the refracting beam ability from the shield set with Isometric Charge has some pretty amusing consequences.. when compounded with Scatter Volley and Fire At Will, you can clear a swarm in a real hurry. I haven't properly tested it against Tholians yet, but I imagine it should prove quite effective. The Stasis mines are an interesting alternative to tractor mines/beams as well. I'm curious how well they perform in Cure Space.

    Tetyron weapons are a little quirky with their nuances(and I think a lot of people underestimate their potential), but after having tested them out.. I am actually rather excited to integrate them into some of my Holodeck builds.
  • arxialarxial Member Posts: 41 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    It's tetryon people, it has problems already, what do you expect? The refraction is an interesting mechanic, but the damage is a bit weak. If it was boosted about 10%, and the proc chance left alone, it'd be viable. However I'd like to see CrtD CrtH variants instead of this Acc and Dmg trash. It's hard enough to miss as it is.
  • tsurutafan01tsurutafan01 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    lol @ acc being "trash".

    This place never ceases to entertain.


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  • edwolf3dedwolf3d Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    Over all I found the weapons useful when paired with the Nakura space set. Without the set and just a console wasn't very impressed. I did have a slightly easier time vrs. Tholians with them though.
  • azurianstarazurianstar Member Posts: 6,985 Arc User
    edited May 2013
    I tried it and wasn't impressed with the weapons or the set. The refracted beams did little damage, but I could imagine gaining aggro of in certain situations could be benefital for Cruisers in a tanking role.

    As for the set looks, the EVA suit is just a black paint job of existing EVA suits than something different.

    The Ground Set Sword had no graphics, but it has an interesting ability that might be useful on Nukara.

    The Space Set was the most disappointing since it's just rehash of the Jem'Hadar set graphics, except its gray than purple. Also, the Engine is using Borg Set Engines. Which was annoying since I couldn't turn it off so I could get rid of that set noise.


    All in all, outside of the Elite Fighters and the Reputation buffs, there is nothing that interests me personally.
  • fedredfedred Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Right.

    I will start this off by saying that I have always been a great fan of any chain mechanics.
    In War*craft 3 I used to play orc race only because they had two heroes - one with chain heal, and one with chain lightning.

    When I played wow, I stuck with shaman, because of chain lighting, and chain heal.

    When I played Path of Exile, I would use double totem build with arc lightning skill.

    Perhaps I have some kind of pathology that needs to be checked asap, but as you can tell, I can't live without chained damage.

    Now i've been playing STO for around 2 years, maybe more, and invested somewhere about 150-200$ on it (I have every single carrier this game has to offer), and I have been excited for many things Cryptic were to introduce.

    However, I have never been as excited as seeing these refracting weapons. "Holy ****, is this a dream?", - I thought.

    And so I started farming Nukara reputation, thinking how amazing it will be to have these amazing weapons in every slot, paired with fire at will. It would be amazing for tanking, wouldn't it?

    In the process of farming reputation I found this thread, and saw all the criticism towards the weapon. "They all must have had unrealistic expectations for these weapons, surely they aren't this bad" - I thought, even though it is then that I found out the proc chance was 2,5%. But that's fair, all weapons have 2,5% proc rate, right?

    So I kept on farming reputation until today, when I finally decided to buy it and test it out for myself.



    So I bought the Refracting tetryon beam, slapped it on my ship and went to a random mission on elite difficulty, thinking mobs would live longer for testing purposes.

    I have never been so disappointed in my entire gaming life. First proc came after 15 minutes of bashing a Slavemsater battleship. That's when I realized this weapon is a piece of **** and its proc sucks ****.

    End of story.


    Honestly, in order to make this weapon viable I see the following options:

    a)Make proc rate at LEAST 25%, and keep the same damage.

    b) Make proc rate 100%, and reduce damage it does to 25%.

    c) Make proc rate 10% and make it chain to three targets.

    "Bu-but that's unfair!" You might say. Yeah, nah. It is fair. Every single proc-based energy weapon in this game is based on ruining the day for your target. Phaser procs? Shields/weapons/engine gone. Ship is disabled for 5 seconds. Polaron procs? -100 energy total. Tetryon procs? That's free 1200 damage to your target.

    When refracting weapons proc you do pathetic damage... to a RANDOM TARGET. Imaging any instance people currently do.

    Let's look at Crystalline Entity. Your proc will most likely bounce to a shard and do 1 damage, that's a useless proc.

    Let's say you are in STF. Your proc will most likely bounce to a generator that is immune to damage, that is a useless proc as well.

    In PVP, a random bounce towards a random player will literally do no damage whatsoever, even if it bounces to a fighter it will do **** all.

    The only way it can be useful if it procs and hits a heavy torpedo that is drifting your way, but in that case Thor clearly shines upon you and you should buy a lottery tricked instead of playing this game.

    Dear Cryptic, please redesign this weapon or completely remove it, at its current state it is insulting and not worth it.

    I do apologise for my spelling, not enough time to check it atm.
  • thepantspartythepantsparty Member Posts: 431 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I think you guys have some pretty unrealistic expectations about what a modifier is worth. A CritH is a 2% chance to deal 50% (plus however much CritD you have) extra damage, the refracting "modifier" is a 2.5% chance to deal X% (I'm not sure how much the proc is for, you'd have to compare it to the base damage of the weapon and see how much consoles/weapon power/etc affect it) extra damage.
  • nikkyvixnikkyvix Member Posts: 241 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    fedred wrote: »
    Right.

    *snip*

    So I bought the Refracting tetryon beam, slapped it on my ship and went to a random mission on elite difficulty, thinking mobs would live longer for testing purposes.

    I have never been so disappointed in my entire gaming life. First proc came after 15 minutes of bashing a Slavemsater battleship. That's when I realized this weapon is a piece of **** and its proc sucks ****.

    End of story.


    Honestly, in order to make this weapon viable I see the following options:

    a)Make proc rate at LEAST 25%, and keep the same damage.

    b) Make proc rate 100%, and reduce damage it does to 25%.

    c) Make proc rate 10% and make it chain to three targets.

    "Bu-but that's unfair!" You might say. Yeah, nah. It is fair. Every single proc-based energy weapon in this game is based on ruining the day for your target. Phaser procs? Shields/weapons/engine gone. Ship is disabled for 5 seconds. Polaron procs? -100 energy total. Tetryon procs? That's free 1200 damage to your target.

    When refracting weapons proc you do pathetic damage... to a RANDOM TARGET. Imaging any instance people currently do.

    Let's look at Crystalline Entity. Your proc will most likely bounce to a shard and do 1 damage, that's a useless proc.

    Let's say you are in STF. Your proc will most likely bounce to a generator that is immune to damage, that is a useless proc as well.

    In PVP, a random bounce towards a random player will literally do no damage whatsoever, even if it bounces to a fighter it will do **** all.

    The only way it can be useful if it procs and hits a heavy torpedo that is drifting your way, but in that case Thor clearly shines upon you and you should buy a lottery tricked instead of playing this game.

    Dear Cryptic, please redesign this weapon or completely remove it, at its current state it is insulting and not worth it.

    I do apologise for my spelling, not enough time to check it atm.


    Thank you for that, particularly for the examples.

    I want these items to be worth my time and effort made getting to the tier and paying to have them unlocked, THEN purchasing them. I don't wish to do that for an underbalanced, potentially debilitating proc that will amount to regret upon purchase (unless, as negative as it sounds, that is not a concern of Cryptic's insofar as much as just getting peoples' personal currencies drained).

    If I remember, this is largely why people did not use plasma weapons for the longest time until their retooling. The exotic damage of the weapon (which is really the prime reason for even picking the energy type in the first place) was laughable before it received some retooling. That and the Spiral Wave Disruptors' retooling are precedents where underpowered weapon types that were obviously not worth their purchase and use needed reworking. Correct me if I'm wrong.

    As I had the marks to burn, I've unlocked the refracting cannons in the store but I haven't blown any dilithium on them yet. I am strongly considering not doing so unless someone can provide a convincing reason to, because on its face, against natural shield and hull repair rates, 2.5% chance for what amounts to a single turret bolt on a VERY limited range is extremely limiting.
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  • kishodarkishodar Member Posts: 89 Arc User
    edited July 2013
    Thanks for the feedback on these weapons. Was planning on upgrading my Tetryon Recluse to the MK XII refracting arrays, but now you've saved me the cash and disappointment from doing so.

    Hopefully they get a look over by the devs to make them more worth their cost.
  • cojak70cojak70 Member Posts: 10 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    obviasly you have no idiea what your talking about. only effects cannons and not beams lol what a joke
  • lianthelialianthelia Member Posts: 7,887 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    I was thinking maybe if they changed them to Piercing Tetryon weapons they might be a little more effective?
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  • meimeitoomeimeitoo Member Posts: 12,594 Arc User
    edited August 2013
    fedred wrote: »
    Right.

    I will start this off by saying that I have always been a great fan of any chain mechanics.
    In War*craft 3 I used to play orc race only because they had two heroes - one with chain heal, and one with chain lightning.

    When I played wow, I stuck with shaman, because of chain lighting, and chain heal.

    When I played Path of Exile, I would use double totem build with arc lightning skill.

    Perhaps I have some kind of pathology that needs to be checked asap, but as you can tell, I can't live without chained damage.

    Now i've been playing STO for around 2 years, maybe more, and invested somewhere about 150-200$ on it (I have every single carrier this game has to offer), and I have been excited for many things Cryptic were to introduce.

    However, I have never been as excited as seeing these refracting weapons. "Holy ****, is this a dream?", - I thought.

    And so I started farming Nukara reputation, thinking how amazing it will be to have these amazing weapons in every slot, paired with fire at will. It would be amazing for tanking, wouldn't it?

    In the process of farming reputation I found this thread, and saw all the criticism towards the weapon. "They all must have had unrealistic expectations for these weapons, surely they aren't this bad" - I thought, even though it is then that I found out the proc chance was 2,5%. But that's fair, all weapons have 2,5% proc rate, right?

    So I kept on farming reputation until today, when I finally decided to buy it and test it out for myself.



    So I bought the Refracting tetryon beam, slapped it on my ship and went to a random mission on elite difficulty, thinking mobs would live longer for testing purposes.

    I have never been so disappointed in my entire gaming life. First proc came after 15 minutes of bashing a Slavemsater battleship. That's when I realized this weapon is a piece of **** and its proc sucks ****.

    End of story.


    Honestly, in order to make this weapon viable I see the following options:

    a)Make proc rate at LEAST 25%, and keep the same damage.

    b) Make proc rate 100%, and reduce damage it does to 25%.

    c) Make proc rate 10% and make it chain to three targets.

    "Bu-but that's unfair!" You might say. Yeah, nah. It is fair. Every single proc-based energy weapon in this game is based on ruining the day for your target. Phaser procs? Shields/weapons/engine gone. Ship is disabled for 5 seconds. Polaron procs? -100 energy total. Tetryon procs? That's free 1200 damage to your target.

    When refracting weapons proc you do pathetic damage... to a RANDOM TARGET. Imaging any instance people currently do.

    Let's look at Crystalline Entity. Your proc will most likely bounce to a shard and do 1 damage, that's a useless proc.

    Let's say you are in STF. Your proc will most likely bounce to a generator that is immune to damage, that is a useless proc as well.

    In PVP, a random bounce towards a random player will literally do no damage whatsoever, even if it bounces to a fighter it will do **** all.

    The only way it can be useful if it procs and hits a heavy torpedo that is drifting your way, but in that case Thor clearly shines upon you and you should buy a lottery tricked instead of playing this game.

    Dear Cryptic, please redesign this weapon or completely remove it, at its current state it is insulting and not worth it.


    ^^ I agree with everything this man said. Please, Cryptic, give the Refracting thingy some love.
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  • olie87olie87 Member Posts: 13 Arc User
    edited May 2014
    It has become abundantly apparent that few people playing this game understand its mechanics. All energy weapon types have the same proc rate, we know this. That's how it works. [Acc] is your friend because when your accuracy value exceeds your current target's defense value, the remaining value is converted into Critical Hit Chance [CrtH] ---AND--- Critical Hit Severity [CrtD], thus not allowing any skill points spent in weapon accuracy to ever go to waste. It's right there in the Skill Tree description of accuracy under the Commander level column. So, the base 2.5% proc rate of any single weapon is BASE, not actual output when in combat. Equipping all [Acc] weapons means that a lot more will be converted into [CrtH] and [CrtD] effectively increasing the rate at which you proc, and the severity of your hits.

    Now, purely in my opinion, beams benefit astronomically more from any kind of proc type than cannons because a single beam array has a 290 degree firing arc, while a DHC only has a 45 degree firing arc, also allowing for all equipped single beam arrays to fire while broadsiding. Why is this significant? Because while a DHC escort must have a ship in its limited firing arc to deal maximum spike damage, the beam vessel can hit it all the time from any direction. All it has to do is outmaneuver the escort. "But they turn too fast!" you might say. Perhaps, but something as simple as an Assimilated Tractor Beam or the like can lock them down just long enough to deal the necessary damage, especially if you consider that any good grav-speced or crowd control support vessel in a PvP team can lock down those glass cannons for the beam boats to annihilate. In addition, while the escort must concentrate on keeping its target in a limited firing arc, the target can concentrate on getting out of it, which is much easier for the beam vessel than the escort that must either turn on a dime (which is usually not an issue) or has to make multiple passes, all the while taking constant pressure damage. Again, merely my opinion, but the practical application of this concept has done wonders for my build.

    Finally, the Refracting Tetryon weapons were not designed to serve as a DPS system. If you look at the bonuses provided from the weapons set and the shield/eng/def set from the Nukara Reputation tree, it is clearly designed for a ship (usually science) serving in a support role. Now, in a tanky little Fleet Nebula, for example, this can be quite the angry little pest when it is supporting some hard hitting DPSers like Avengers or Fleet escorts. Keep your cannons alive, all the while wreaking havoc on your opponents' shields, leaving them wide open for straight-to-the-hull spike damage from your allies and forcing them to retreat less they become destroyed. No, this set will never produce mad DPS, and yes, it lacks a certain amount of pizzazz, but under the right conditions, and when serving as a support vessel, this could be a brutal setup for any seasoned PvP team in terms of crowd control and faster kill rates.
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