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captbadhorse
Member Posts: 18 Arc User
in The Academy
Hey all, so I got an experience boost box from STO for being a longtime player and just got the character I wanted to use it on to level 50 so I could use it. Once I did, I couldn't even get in a firefight anymore. I have a tier 6 ship, Mark XI and XII weapons and equipment, but now no matter who I fight I'm destroyed almost instantly. Does anyone have any ideas as to how or why this is happening and how to fix it? Thanks.
-Cheif BadHorse
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The universe has a wonderful sense of humor. The trick is learning how to take a joke.
--Red Annorax
b. have better damage resistance - those dps league builds running without armour will get you killed if used on a level 50 with average gear
c. figure out whats doing for you, for example are they disabling your ship and then whacking you, is it torps etc.
d. match combat style to ship and piloting skill, if you've stuck DHCs on a slow ship and can't get a shot off....
e. learn from vids, guides, walkthroughs, forum posts, observing stronger players, doing runs with fleetmates, many fleets will have players that will join you in your missions if asked
But it indeed really depends on what exactly you have.
1) you don't do much damage, and the enemy overwhelm you over time, and you die slowly.
2) the NPCs are hitting you with shield pen torp spreads, which kill even well geared players at times, but are certain death if they crit or you are not well geared.
3) the NPCs are shooting you to death, because you did something like leeroy jenkins up the middle and got 30 things to shoot you all at once. Or you are so weak that a couple of NPCS can kill you (rare, if this is the case, you need basic info level help, things like equip captain traits, spend skill points, use officer abilities?)
4) you are trying to do the delta quad missions. They were designed to challenge somewhat established level 50s and you should be sure to complete all the other arcs first at a minimum. The stuff here is just tougher.
5) you tried to do group content.
6) you are in an escort but lack the gear to keep it alive.
7) you leveled from 0-50+ without getting a good handle on the game mechanics and your gear is not only mk XI ish level but also randomly slapped on. Even all purple mark XIV gear can be horrible if you equip it at random. You need a "build".
8) the NPCs killed you with 10000000000 point shield drain ability followed by 2500000+ damage torp spreads, their new favorite trick.
you can examine the combat log to see why you died.
Any of this ring a bell? If so, which? We can help you (excluding npc cheat attacks which annoy everyone) ... but we need to know the issues.
I think i got hit with attack pattern #08 in the mirror event
Armitage Escort Rams me, then crits on point defense torp attack. not very funny when it gets done multiple times....
Perhaps you can provide your build in skillplanner http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=scilrsvretrofit_0
I think this is one of the ways it can happen. There are others -- the combat log does not seem to register everything in some crowded fights, some sort of lag issue. It does not always seem to register tractor beam repulsor damage either. The other issue is that low damage finishers don't register in the toggle damage done to me when I died interface of the rez popup. If you were blown up for 75k from a torp and then hit with a turret 20 times for 100 damage each and the turret killed you, the death recap popup just says "no significant damage recorded" because the torp hit went stale from being too far in the past.
There are several things you can do to stay alive far more often than you previously did. This method is probably not something a lot of players use but it does work if you ask me.
First of all, I bet you diverted most of your powers to "weapons" and "shields" or aux, and this is a power distribution that many players generally use. However, if you ask me shields are more or less useless in higher levels of difficulty and STFs. Your shields get drained so easily regardless of what shield you have and how much shield capacity you have. Naturally this is why people think they need to distribute power to shields. But if you ask me... and because of the lack of full usefulness of shields, you should divert power to weapons and "engines"... as well as equipping a hyper engine. In doing so you increase your speed significantly and can fly out of their targeting arcs, flank them more easily and it takes longer for their torpedos to hit you.
Secondly, increase youe defense value so that they miss your ship more often. This can half the mount of damage to shields and hull you take in a given time.
And third, improve your turn rate. In doing so, it makes it easier for you to stay on target but also to turn away and avoid a warp core breach, a gravity well or something else that means death.
And finally, since shields lack their optimal use because they get so easily drained you need to up your natural hull healing rate of your ship... with and without the use of on-activation abilities triggered by the player. This lets you tank more easily through plasma burns, shield bleeding and so forth.
So to sum it up, increasing your ship's speed, turn rate, defense and your natural hull healing factor you will stay alive more often. And the last thing you can do is increase your damage to reduce the amount of time you are in combat engagements, further improving your chance of survival.
For example, I am flying the biggest and nearly slowest of all ships, the Iconian Vonph Dreadnought. But in combat I have a speed of 80-100+ impulse (without evasive or Omega III) and a turn rate of 30 (like an unmodified escort or something) and defense rate of 120%. To put icing on the cake, I've got an unbuffed beam array damage of 2200 (hover over HUD icon), as well as innate critH of 23% and critD of 130% (+100% with arrays: "230%"). My damage aside, you rarely see super large ships or any ship for that matter have this level of speed, turn rate and defense. But I can tell you one thing, it keeps you alive.
Also, being able to kill your enemies fast is usually a way to avoid dying, because dead enemies can't deal damage to you. That is usually about optimizing in favor of your damage output, but some enemies use tricks to make it harder to deal damage directly, like using Jam Sensors or other debuffs - avoid the debuffs or have the counters ready.
And generally - you got a lot of bridge officer powers, plus potentially some reputation powers, plus potentially some consoles. Learn how to use them well!
The basic I pretty much always recommend build-wise:
Auxilliary to Structural Integrity Field is a great hull heal and hull resistance buff.
Which is why I said, "my damage aside". What I was trying to prove is that you can take a huge slow-TRIBBLE ship and make it viable in terms of speed, turn rate, defense and damage solely based on your mindset and a clear objective or strive for what you want to accomplish with your ship... and that you may not necessarily always need to compromise and still get damage accompanied with survival. For that reason I stated what level of damage my build has the potential to do despite being optimized for speed, mobility and defense as well. Perhaps the original poster needed a nudge in the right direction as to what is entirely possible in this game and I used the Vonph as an example. I could have taken any other ship but the Vonph suited the description as a very slow and very big ship not normally associated with speed and mobility.
And a turn rate of 30 in a ship that has a base turn rate of 6 is quite a lot. You will outmost rarely see a Jem'hadar Carrier, Vonph, Scimitar, Sheshar or any other large slow ships, cheap or expensive, turn faster than most non-escort ships.
Anyways, to increase your survival I suggest thinking in the lines of speed, mobility, defense... and if possible, accompanied with damage and healing rate. With emphasis on the three first mentioned ones you will increase your survival tremendously. So I will say it again... speed, mobility and defense, then damage and healing factor and you are more or less set in terms of survival. Think outside the box and you can a take a ship you never thought would fly near 100 achieve those speeds and turn faster than what was perceived as possible.
I never told this person what to get or how to achieve it. I leave that up to this person. Nothing as far as what resources to use was mentioned so I don't know what you are raging about. There is no reason for you to lash out because you're sitting behind a computer. There is no reason for you to bash on my build when I never said anything about the original poster's build, or your build for that matter.
If you find my ideas so bad then perhaps you should propose a potential solution yourself without elevating yourself sky high.
Whether a veteran or new player, the original poster kindly asked on the forums as to how he or she can improve in this game and I kindly answered and proposed a way of mindset when creating potential builds that can get this person out of the situation that he or she perceives as difficult to solve on his or her own. It is then up to the original poster to decide on how to accomplish it, what resources to use and what gear to get. I gave him or her one tool: think speed, mobility and defense and that it can be accompanied with damage as well.
You apparently didn't get the idea that this was supposed to be an example to help him or her start thinking in the right direction. Yes, it's an expensive build but its also an extreme example too which is the best way to show what you can actually do in this game. So instead of coming into the forums and flaming other players why don't you actually add to the conversation. It shouldn't matter how anyone wants to play if they want to spend money on the game because they love it then why not (someone has to pay Cryptic
With all of that aside my suggestions to this are:
@captbadhorse: Before things start devolving further, could you please post your build as suggested above? The link up there takes you to a specific build, but you can use that Build Planner to outline and link your own. That will give us all a starting point for where you are in terms of ship, equipment, skills, boff abilities, Traits, etc. From that starting point we can give you some more specific suggestions, though... ...that definitely happens in Mirror (Advanced), as does #2. Plus, Terrans gained the benefit of joining the Enemy of the Season club; that meant an improvement in abilities and the way they use them (slightly smarter than before). Further, Terrans also gain the natural benefits of Fedside development (such as Command Cruiser spawns, etc.), while KDF/Rom NPCs rarely get updated with the new ships when they are released, making Terrans more dangerous opponents as a whole than say the Tal Shiar.
"What you fail to understand" is something you say to a person when you look down on them. And obviously not only do you look down on me but you also look down on the original poster, assuming that he or she is a newbie and providing nothing but a pat on that person's head expecting him or her not being able to provide themselves with a build that may cost a little more time, effort and maybe even money.
But since you do not like my open-endedness and grayzone in what a build can look like I will give this poster a more concrete example without spoiling too much and forcing a narrow build path. Don't you come and complain about that too. However, I am not gonna do all the research because detailed advice never seem to be appreciated... or it is just too wrong or bad. So behind the curtains those details shall be.
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For you who read this, get yourself MK XII or even MK XIV gear for highest potential base damage. What energy type you use doesn't really matter. There are critD weapons and there are those that has a chance to provide temporary HP for extra survival, reduce damage resistance for extra damage, apply plasma burn for exrra damage as well... and what not. Choose what you think may spice up your own build and what you think looks cool to you. You will do more damage regardless of what energy type you use, as long as you are willing to upgrade them a mark level... or two... or three... or four.
There is no reason for you to stick with 4 Bridge Officers indefinitely, or with the first ones given to you by default as you play the story. Bridge officers have ground and space traits so you can get yourself a ground BOFF group layout and a space BOFF group layout for more dedicated stats for each scenario, and more versatility when adjusting their abilities in relation to the ship you use and the ground content you play.
If you want speed then get yourself a hyper engine and distribute powers to your engines (as well as weapons). This will not only provide you with significant combat speed but also a nice added bonus to turn rate. Which engine you use is up to you but you can get some very nice ones from the different reputations that are available to you. Some missions also provide decent gear should you not be aware of their existence.
If you want that extra turn rate there are always cheap default RCS consoles you can get either through hoping for a drop or just buying them straight of the exchange or vendors. Should you find them restrictive you can always get the more exotic RCS consoles that provide other different stats apart from turn rate. Keep your eyes open for other consoles that may provide the [TURN] mod without actually being an RCS console. They are hidden out there.
To add a little more extra damage to your build without overhauling your weapons layout too much there are certain reputation consoles of varying combos that you can get in order to spice up your build further.
And if you can afford it you can get some nice fleet ships that adds a tiny bit more flavor to your default ships. There are also some really nice lockbox ships of varying prices out there that just lie and wait for a captain to fly them... for those willing to go that extra length to get them.
Oh I forgot to say... there are also nice personal space and ground traits you can get as well as traits from the reputations and certain missions that add extra flavor to the potentiality of your build. Did I mention there are also starship traits and specializations too? You can unlock some really nice things from that. Some of those things are free with some effort and some cost... hmm yes, money... but they are still available and a very potential way to further boost your build sky high in regards to speed, mobility, defense and yes... the key to anything in this or any other MMO, namely damage.
And finally I will point out "one" out of a myriad good ways to improve your build. Something of which I have mentioned a few times now. Speed, mobility and defense will add to your survival significantly... but don't forget that damage and to heal yourself from time to time with an ability... or two. There is nothing saying that you must go full power to weapons and shields. Max power to weapons and engines work just as fine for survival if you can accomodate what it may or may not take to get there. It's fuuuun to sweep across the battlefield like a rocket when everyone else and everything else crawls before your eyes. It gives you a nice sense of freedom when playing this game.
Does it have to be expensive? No... not necessarily. You have to pick and choose which route you want to take but with the philosophy of (speed, mobility and defense with damage = entirely possible) you can get very far... or you can run into another wall. If you do you can always come back to these forums and ask the crowd for additional help. Someone might be kind to give you their alternative solutions that hopefully will allow you to overcome that future obstacle, should one appear.
If anything of this is hard to acquire on your own you can always ask a friend or somebody to help you play the missions and STFs to take that first leap so that you have a chance to continue on your own onwards. Though if you like to play with a friend you can continue to do so without letting the idea of self-sufficiency drag you down.
... should you find this to be bad advice then I say... Well, you asked for my advice and I gave one to you. It is up to you to choose whether you do something with it or not.
Hopefully I covered my bases good and if I didn't I apologize. Certainly there will be someone out there looking for blood and loop holes in my wording and advice. To my defense I say... I cannot have everything covered for every contingency.
When designing my builds I use a tank design philosophy, try to balance mobility, protection and fire power.
I generally focus more on protection and mobility with enough fire power to defend myself, I may not do as much on the DPS front but I know I'm going to last longer in a fight than the DPS league builds that don't think about protection
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius