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Shield drain abilities too powerful
risian4
Member Posts: 3,711 Arc User
I'm flying a Vesta, a ship with one of the highest shield modifiers in the game (1.4).
I'm using MACO resilient shield array mk 14. My secondary deflector gives +15 bonus to power insultors. Primary deflector, MACO graviton, gives +20 to both shield systems and shield emitters. I'm using two Embassy science consoles that give +35.6 shield emitters each. After the recent change I decided to put a mk 12 purple power insulators console on my ship as well, not that it should be necessary, but I did so anyway. The two set maco bonus gives another 15.2 power insulator bonus. Edit: Forgot to add that I'm also using a crafted mk 13 console that gives another +33.8 to shield emitters.
Skills:
Power insulators fully filled.
Same for:
Shield emitters
Starship shield systems
Starship shield performance
Shield power level: 91
So my ship has countless bonuses to shield drain resist abilities, my shields can barely get any more powerful, and yet they are drained in mere seconds, either by one cube or just a few spheres.
Could anyone tell me if Borg drain abilities are working as intended? Cause if they are, it means this ability is so OP that nothing can counter it. In that case, a change is needed imo.
I'm using MACO resilient shield array mk 14. My secondary deflector gives +15 bonus to power insultors. Primary deflector, MACO graviton, gives +20 to both shield systems and shield emitters. I'm using two Embassy science consoles that give +35.6 shield emitters each. After the recent change I decided to put a mk 12 purple power insulators console on my ship as well, not that it should be necessary, but I did so anyway. The two set maco bonus gives another 15.2 power insulator bonus. Edit: Forgot to add that I'm also using a crafted mk 13 console that gives another +33.8 to shield emitters.
Skills:
Power insulators fully filled.
Same for:
Shield emitters
Starship shield systems
Starship shield performance
Shield power level: 91
So my ship has countless bonuses to shield drain resist abilities, my shields can barely get any more powerful, and yet they are drained in mere seconds, either by one cube or just a few spheres.
Could anyone tell me if Borg drain abilities are working as intended? Cause if they are, it means this ability is so OP that nothing can counter it. In that case, a change is needed imo.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Try Dyson shields, they have shield drain resistance. They will just delay the full drain a bit though.
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So when I'm firing a TB on an NPC battleship I might have get through something like 20-40K plus shield HP's. On normal, with flow caps around 300 even with the recent buff it takes at least 2 and maybe 3 cycles of TB III to get through the shields (even with sensor analysis) because there are so many HP's. Conversely, an NPC can shoot TB I or II and deplete a users shields with one cycle (roughly 900-1000 shield HP drain per sec for 10 seconds), well that's 10K shield HP's. That's most users full shield strength. And when your losing 1000 shield HP per second, recovering a couple hundred points isn't effective especially if you add the fact you are getting shot at the same time and losing additional shield HP to energy fire and NPC torpedoes which cause so much damage.
Two things need to change to make this ability effective on both sides. Drop NPC shields HP and have them rely on captain skills and abilities more (not going to happen). Or buff power insulators to supplement the new buff in TB for NPC's. That should have been addressed from the beginning or at least. It just proves that power insulators actually weren't that effective to begin with, it was just that TB sucked balls.
I don't mind a Borg Cube able to tear through my shields or several spheres especially if I don't have PI investment (think about it, if 3 spheres shoot TB with 1000 shield drain per second that's 30K shield HP's being drained, who has that much shield HP?). But Star Trek combat is about move counter move and there should be a skill I can invest in to counter those effects.
So a buff to power insulators is the appropriate fix.
The other solution to go with that is tactics. If you know that if you draw agro from several spheres and they will counter with firing successive TB attacks (5 spheres = 50K shield HP gone in 10 seconds) well...I'm reminded of the patient who walks into the doctors office and says the following..
patient: Dr. it hurst when i do this
Dr.: then don't that
I have power insulators filled and I even have multiple bonuses that enhance this ability. Also, since I'm a sci officer, I'm already using max weapons and aux power. There's no way I can increase shield power even more without reducing the other two or draining my engines.
I agree with rekurzion. If this many bonuses can't resist the shield drain of even a single cube or just a few spheres, then power insulators clearly are too weak and should get a buff.
It's nice to see that tachyon beam has been made a bit more useful, but the counter ability (power insulators) should be useful as well or there's no way the average and even some more experienced players will be able to survive this amount of draining.
Yeah, one or two tachyon beams I can still handle, or just ignore by having sci team ready as soon as the drain is over.
Today I was hit by about seven spheres who all attacked me at the same time cause it was me who dropped the gravity well in ISA to buy the team some time. My shields were gone in two seconds and I never got a chance to recover.
So, if the Borg are making your shields go away, isn't that, y'know, working as intended?
Yeah, most of my captains flies ships that are capable of tossing out GW1 or GW3; the exceptions are the Phantom and the Qib. Like all other players who can use GW, I hit Borg Spheres with it in ISA / ISN when they come out of the gate. I draw a lot of aggro from the Sphere and they simply spam with TB. Hull tanking is really the only way (running helps too) in situations like that...
Hull tanking for my toons flying a Bird of Prey isn't easy, but there's no other choice since I cannot depend on other players to have GW. I have played ISA / ISN several times where no one had a ship capable of using GW; including myself. Needless to say, ISA did not end very well...
It certainly instills a sense of fear of the Borg (as seen in many TNG episodes) and how tough Borg Cubes really are. In Star Trek: First Contact, a single Borg Cube was capable of taking on a large number of Federation Starships relatively easily as it was approaching Earth. Only when the Enterprise-E appeared did Federation have a chance to really destroy the Cube because Captain Picard used his knowledge of the Borg he gained when he was Locutus of Borg to target vulnerable points on the Cube to destroy it. Needless to say, Borg Cubes were likely refitted afterwards to ensure the same tactic could not be used again.
While I liked ST:FC, it does kinda makes me wonder why didn't the Borg Queen simply travel back in time and provide the earlier Borg with current technologies and the location of Earth. They could have easily bypassed the Federation altogether. But I suppose that would not make a very good Star Trek movie.
Well, the borg only advance by assimilating. The federation rapidly improves their technology of their own. So basically, if the borg had traveled back to upgrade themselves, the Federation at that point might not have been a target, because it was still to primitive. On the other hand, the borg might have had the problem that they would have been a stalemate in their advance, as they simply wouldnt have needed to assimilate other cultures (which would have been assimilated without interference), since they didnt need to, and hence in comparasion those too seemed to primitive to worry about.
I am pretty sure "Past Borg" can assimilate technologies and strategic / tactical information provided by "Future Borg" so that "Past Borg" can adapt to future technology and understand how much of an obstacle Earth will be in the future after the Federation has been formed.
Another alternative is for the Borg Queen to travel back in time first and then travel to Earth so that she can personally oversee the assimilation of Earth herself without any interference from the Federation. Again... this does not make for a good Star Trek movie by bypassing the entire main cast of ST:TNG.
And, this is a shield array that is supposed to have a 50% resistance vs shield draining!
Guess that 50%, isn't doing its job at all, unless w/o it my shield strength would be gone in 1sec. vs 2secs..
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Well I tried HE, ST, 16k shield cap, 200+PI, and a ton of shield and hull heals, with 50%+resists on my 100k+ hull at all times, at the same time... what else do you want me to do?
SCM - Hive (S) - [02:31] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 30.62M(204.66K) - Fed Sci
Tacs are overrated.
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"Let them eat static!"
Edit: Then again I'm a terribad player and have minimal settings in engines and auxiliary to beef up weapons and shields.
Let the stupid suffer
If you are getting slammed by all the Tach Beams from the Borg (and only the Borg NPCs have it at such strengths), there's nothing you can do to keep the shields up.
What you CAN do is clear it and get the shields back. If you truly have 50%+ hull resists, you should be flying around with ZERO worries in the world even if they do keep piling it on you. If you truly had those resists, you literally could ride it out and not give 2 ****s about your shields and let the hazards go away on their own. Tach Bm doesn't last that long and when you do get slammed by all the Borg Tach Beams, they tend to do it all on the same time or close to that.
This game does not throw that much firepower at you in PVE. When shields collapse in Advanced or even Elite, I don't care.
If this was PVP (which is a niche portion in this game) and your shields are gone, then I'd be really worried. But since most only PVE, I'm never worried.
People in this game are freaking out that some NPC can actually do something meaningful to them, despite having ZERO firepower to make it matter. People acting like it's the end of the world. I'm just strolling in the park enjoying the spectacle having a laugh. I enjoy it more when it's veteran players or "elite" players out there that are panicking.
HOW DARE THE NPCS DO SOMETHING WHILE I SHOOT AT THEM!
Well if you are getting TB spammed by several Spheres, then the best thing to do is... nothing. Allow the spamming to stop before using any abilities to bring up shields. If you are getting spammed with TB and you are also taking fire which causes hull damage, then use HE, ET and Brace For Impact (and maybe Miracle Worker if you are an engineer). Running is probably a good idea as well depending on the condition of your hull.
Oh, I am not one who will not adapt, as I have made heavy reliance of hull DR abilities but, the Degree at how often they drain shields is slightly ridiculous to some degree.
The amount they drain isn't to me IMO the problem, it's how often they can do it is what tends to be problematic at points.
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!
Oh no no no. Do NOT apply any LOGIC to the OP! or as is said in SOVIET RUSSIA: It is YOU who will be Nerfed!!
Unless it's pvp. because all nerfs come from pvp.
No. That would just make science skills again useless. The solution would be to adjust the spheres drain in that case, and even then, most people are doing ISA runs fine even with the boost.
yes, this is exactly my pont of view. i can resist to 1 or 2 Tc, but they are used too often, and sometimes by the same sphere.
Lol, no worse than a sphere + cube using it together, than the cube using tractor beam every 10-20secs. constantly.
Had that sucker tractor me 8X in a row!
Praetor of the -RTS- Romulan Tal Shiar fleet!