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Is it possible to drain an NPC's shields with Target Shield Subsystem III on Advanced and Elite?

rekurzionrekurzion Member Posts: 697 Arc User
edited September 2015 in Builds, Powers, and Game Mechanics
I've invested quite a bit into flow caps and with the unique setup of the sci oddy (4 sci consoles, uni Lt. Cmd for TSSIII and sensor analysis) I can reliably drain all power from an NPC's shields subsystem resulting in total failure with one phaser shot. This is guaranteed except on battleships and of course this is on normal.

My question is if this is possible on harder difficulty levels. I have some more room to invest into flow caps (turn my sci consoles epic and add the fleet eng console which also add to flow caps). Has anyone tried it? Right now I can drain 95 shield power with a single shot plus an additional 30% from Sensor Analysis but I've been unsuccessful in advanced even on the tiniest of ships to fully drain their shields resulting in shield failure. My concern is NPC shield power on harder levels is set to an amount higher than 125. If so I don't want to waste investment and time.
Post edited by rekurzion on

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    woodwhitywoodwhity Member Posts: 2,636 Arc User
    Answer ✓
    Only by reading your title I was quite puzzled how you would want to drain shields with the shieldhealing ability Transfer ShieldStrength, which is usually affiliated with TSS.
    But since you meant Beam:Target Shield Subsystem, its obviously a different matter, but out of experience (though I only use the build-in T1-Powers of Sciships, as TSS itself is -outside of pvp- usually quite weak), I would take the guess that its unlikely to perform well.
    Though NPCs dont operate on higher shieldpower in advanced (at least not over 125, most actually use the default settings. Guess why most hit you hardest with their torps), I think TS is offset by power insulators, which are set higher on advanced/elite.

    Usually drainbuilds require tykons rift and energy siphon. TS is more like icing on the cake.
    Since you mentioned phasers, I would switch to polaron, or even better phased polaron for draining purposes. They do a much better job at it than phasers.
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    lucho80lucho80 Member Posts: 6,600 Bug Hunter
    edited September 2015 Answer ✓
    Now an answer from someone who has flow caps through the roof.

    Yes, you can drain most NPCs shields in Advanced difficulty. My target subsystems 3 alone drains 130 power without procing insp leader, or having temp boosts. Donatra's ship is the sole exception since I usually have to kick off QSM to drain her.

    Elite is a different monster. There is no way to drain a target except if the whole team was super science drainers, which would fail the elite queue anyway. Elite is 95% about DPS and 5% crowd control, the devs made sure of it. Any other type of skill is useless in Elite space queues.

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    rekurzionrekurzion Member Posts: 697 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    i didn't think about power insulators, that's a good point and would give them more protection rather than just giving them unreasonable shield strength. I've actually managed to get the drain to work just by adding power syphon I to the mix. and if i get target shields III to drain 100 shield power that's pretty tasty icing.
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    jarvisandalfredjarvisandalfred Member Posts: 1,549 Bug Hunter
    Elite tac cubes multiply incoming drain by 5.5% and have 50 shield power. You do the math on how much base power drain you need (offhand, roughly 910+)
    SCM - Crystal C. (S) - [00:12] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 8.63M(713.16K) - Fed Sci

    SCM - Hive (S) - [02:31] DMG(DPS) - @jarvisandalfred: 30.62M(204.66K) - Fed Sci

    Tacs are overrated.

    Game's best wiki

    Build questions? Look here!
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    rekurzionrekurzion Member Posts: 697 Arc User
    thanks for the input. the difference between advanced and elite would make sense. some folks like maximizing damage output and they would get rather bored with content that always withered away in front of them. But it sounds like I can still take advantage of flow caps playing advanced with the build I want.

    just curious if there is another ship with 4 sci consoles, 4 eng consoles (for my eventual addition of RCS w/ flow caps), Lt. Cmd tac for target subsystem 3 AND sensor analysis? I really like my sci oddy.
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    tom61stotom61sto Member Posts: 3,637 Arc User
    edited September 2015
    rekurzion wrote: »
    thanks for the input. the difference between advanced and elite would make sense. some folks like maximizing damage output and they would get rather bored with content that always withered away in front of them. But it sounds like I can still take advantage of flow caps playing advanced with the build I want.

    just curious if there is another ship with 4 sci consoles, 4 eng consoles (for my eventual addition of RCS w/ flow caps), Lt. Cmd tac for target subsystem 3 AND sensor analysis? I really like my sci oddy.

    You can only have one Conductive RCS mounted on a ship at a given time, so no [Flow] RCS stacking. Closest ship to that config I can think of is the Tal Shiar Adapted Battle Cruiser T5-U, which has 3 Eng and 4 Sci consoles and has Sensor Analysis with up to a Commander Tac (Uni) and Lt. Comm fixed Sci for even more drains if you desired, but it is a Lobi ship, so a bit expensive.
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