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Noob questions about buffs and debuffs
rausch1980
Member Posts: 15 Arc User
Hello to all captains,
I am a little bit puzzled by the buffs and debuff aspect of the game. I have no clue how or where you can see what your opponent used on me and what to do in return. Where can we see that?
And maybe there is a post or something else were I can read up on what to use as a counter?
The times I get blown up in this game are way more then need be. If I can just get this down.
Thanks in advance for any help.
I am a little bit puzzled by the buffs and debuff aspect of the game. I have no clue how or where you can see what your opponent used on me and what to do in return. Where can we see that?
And maybe there is a post or something else were I can read up on what to use as a counter?
The times I get blown up in this game are way more then need be. If I can just get this down.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Post edited by rausch1980 on
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Is there a specific scenario or enemies or ship types that you are having trouble with? like PVE or PVP or a specific 5man instance?
I only do the CCE on elite and Conduit elite for the rewards and to further my rep. But any of the others I do not play because I believe I am not good enough in this game to do them. So I only fill up my rep on the "old" 3 reps.
So I want to get to know how this works so my shields dont drop every time I engage an enemy.
Thanks for your post, going to read it again and again.
For the blue circle look right above my forward shield facing indicator and you will see that i have 3 buffs active. You've probably seen the same thing in game for your own ship. Your debuffs will show up on that same line. If you dont know what something is just mouseover it and it tells you. If you need further explanation of what a debuff does then you can ask. A lot of times it is pretty easy to figure out though. If it's the only debuff you have and you notice your ship is flying sluggish then that kinda narrows it down. If your shields are draining super fast and you have this one debuff called borg shield neutralizer then you kinda know which one is taking your shields away hehe. And also dont forget that most debuffs leave some kind of aura or graphic effect on your actual ship. Plasma fire, borg shield neutralizer all have special effect and if you are paying attention you will know if you are affected by them.
Ok now going on to the target...same thing here if you dont know what something is just mouse over it. A lot of the symbols are shared but some power abilities are unique to NPC's and so you have to mouseover to figure out what they are. Same thing for them, their own buffs and debuffs will show up under their picture frame. If you see a target has torpedo high yield buff, and that the target you are fighting normally shoots photon torpedos then a high yield photon torpedo will be a fast moving projectile that hits harder. If you are fighting a romulan and they normally shoot plasma torpedos then you will know that a torpedo high yield from a plasma torp launcher is a slow moving projectile. A torp high yield from a D'Dridex cruiser will have 3 slow moving projectiles. That kind of stuff...if they have a buff for cannon rapid fire or scatter volley or beam fire at will you need to decide if you can take the damage, turn your shield facing away from the enemy because it is depleted. Their buffs let you know if they are about to unload some high damaging abilities and if you need to adjust.
Now the target of target window frame? taking all the info i just mentioned above you will know if you are the target or if someone else is. There is some stuff that you can do too. Like did you know that if you have 1 shield facing depleted but the 3 are full, that activating the Tactical Team boff ability will redistribute your shields automatically for say 10 seconds to the one that is currently taking damage? or that some abilities raise your resistance to kinetic or straight damage? making you harder to kill? there are also other things too like positioning. When doing the borg 5 mans it is possible to position yourself so that the gates dont damage you but you can damage them? for that just pay attention to the other people playing and see if they are shooting in a certain area and not getting hit. Some people might consider this tactic 'cheating' though. But it's been around for a long time and the devs havent changed it so apparently noone cares.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/
Joined January 2009
I do need to be more aware of these things. So now I know where to look.
And a voice server is easier. The point is that English is not my first nore my second language. And with writing and reading its almost perfect but speaking it is very hard for me. So I am no a huge fan of speaking it. Thanks though.
I did find it weird that there is not much information to find about this subject. Because I do hear a lot of times that players will tell others they are doing things in a not logical way.
Everyone else has mostly covered buffing and de-buffing, so Ill do counters. Almost everything in STO has a counter - certainly everything in STO's PvE.
The most important counters are Tactical Team, Science Team, Engineering Team, Hazard Emitters. They are also usable on allies within 10km distance. There are others - Polarise Hull, Attack Pattern Omega, and to an extent Aux2Dampers make hold effects not work on you, like Gravity Well and Tractor Beam.
Tac Team - clears Tactical debuffs like Fire On My Mark and Attack Pattern Beta, and also re-distributes your shields at a much faster rate than manually doing it. Also very mildly increases damage, but not that much. When doffed with a Conn Officer, it gains reduced cooldown time, and an attack pattern boost.
Engineering team - Functions as a non-Aux based hull heal, and clears stuff like Viral Matrix and engineering debuffs. Maintenance Engineers reduce cooldown time and add extra hull repair, and Systems Engineers have a chance to add a power boost to all power levels.
Science team - Shield heal, most, but not all, science debuff removal. Development Lab Scientists reduce cooldown time and add extra shield healing.
Hazard Emitters - cleanses hazard debuffs, like Borg shield neutraliser, Undine snot bubbles, Eject Warp Plasma, radiation effects and plasma weapon proc. It also has two Aux-based parts - an extra resist for duration, and a hull heal over duration. Astrometrics Scientists make it apply a weaker effect to <50% hull allies in a 3km sphere.
Those are the 4 main counters - TT you keep up constantly, ET and ST are used as needed, and HE is used primarily as a debuff cleanse first and Hull heal second.
In PvE, these will cover essentially everything that will be chucked at you, particularly HE.
Also: Attack patterns. While it is a little off-topic, they deserve covering, as there is masses of misinformation out there.
Attack Pattern Alpha is a Tac Captain ability which increases turn rate and causes more damage by increasing both types of crit and base damage.
Attack Pattern Beta places a debuff on your opponents hull resistance and stealth - it is most commonly used in PvE as the Attack Pattern of choice. It also stacks with weapon abilities like Beam Fire at Will and Cannon scatter Volley, spreading the effect across more opponents.
Attack Pattern Delta places a buff to your own damage resistance, and places a debuff to your attacker's damage resistance and stealth.
Attack Pattern Omega increases damage, your damage resistance, cleanses holds and increases your ships speed and turn rate.
APB, APD and APO all share the same Doffs to reduce cooldown time by 15%. APA has no Doff.
APB is best used in PvE - NPCs don't have Tac team, and APBs stack, increasing everyone on the teams damage. In PvP, it is best not to use it as any self respecting PvPer will clear it PDQ.
APD is part way between PvE and PvP in functionality - key difference is it can be placed on an ally to give them assistance.
APO is essentially PvP only in use, as you don't want to use APO to clear holds if you can help it, and increasing everyone's damage is better than just your own in PvE.
The most important thing to know about STO is nothing is as OP as teamwork and knowing what to do and when to do it. Ship and gear are secondary.
I do try to look out better and it does seem to help a little. Meaning i have not died as much because i can keep my shields up better when fighting the Borg. Small steps though as they say
Thanks to all
The key thing is learning the situational awareness side, and learning to read the buff/debuff lists and what each symbol means just from a quick glance.
Eventually, with practice you end up at the stage of being able to effectively use a normal speed impulse 300+ BoP capable of a U-turn in its own wingspan with DHCs while tracking 4 team mates and opposing team members, but that takes time and effort.
It does take a lot of effort and most of the action is fast so there is not enough time to have overview. You do make a good point.
Going to focus on a couple of things instead of trying to get the whole picture. Going to look for a list if there is any where the buff/debuffs are organized and easy to view in a crunch.