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Are Tier 3 Pilot skills as worthless as they seem?
chastity1337
Member Posts: 1,608 Arc User
The following is, of course, just my impression, YMMV.
Looking at the Tier 3 Pilot skills, Scratch the Paint is the only one that looks to be worth anything at all.
Let's start at the left with Turn the Other Cheek. OK, so, if the enemy is to Port, what good will it do to improve my defense to Starboard? Yet everything on the left side revolves around Turn the Other Cheek. The only way this makes sense is if you plan to charge right into the middle of a mass of foes.
And on the right, Danger Zone. Within 2.0 kilometers? Seriously, guys, two freaking kilometers? How often are you going to have any significant number of friends or foes within 2 kilometers, and when you do, how long will they remain that close? Half a second? Most of us have lag approaching that. And yet the one worthwhile skill, Scratch the Paint, cannot be had without wasting a point on Danger Zone. Again, this makes zero sense unless you plan to pull a Leroy Jenkins.
So, my esteemed fellow captains, am I missing the point entirely, or is this another case of abilities designed by people who don't play the game enough to know how it works? If the former, please explain.
Looking at the Tier 3 Pilot skills, Scratch the Paint is the only one that looks to be worth anything at all.
Let's start at the left with Turn the Other Cheek. OK, so, if the enemy is to Port, what good will it do to improve my defense to Starboard? Yet everything on the left side revolves around Turn the Other Cheek. The only way this makes sense is if you plan to charge right into the middle of a mass of foes.
And on the right, Danger Zone. Within 2.0 kilometers? Seriously, guys, two freaking kilometers? How often are you going to have any significant number of friends or foes within 2 kilometers, and when you do, how long will they remain that close? Half a second? Most of us have lag approaching that. And yet the one worthwhile skill, Scratch the Paint, cannot be had without wasting a point on Danger Zone. Again, this makes zero sense unless you plan to pull a Leroy Jenkins.
So, my esteemed fellow captains, am I missing the point entirely, or is this another case of abilities designed by people who don't play the game enough to know how it works? If the former, please explain.
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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Yes, you are certainly entitled to your shinies, no argument.
My one toon who uses Pilot skill is a Fed Sci in a Vesta T5-u with a Part Gens build. I like the boost to turn rate, so I can always reliably point the nose where it needs to be. She has 10 points in Pilot, which earns her a 20% increase to turn rate. And the Rock & Roll skill is very handy when it's time to didi mau. So am I a broadside beam boat? Wellllll, sorta yes and no. I have beams. Broadside is handy for bringing them all to bear. But it's not what I'm all about, that's GW3 and IKC and various other nasty little Sci tricks. My main function is to bunch things up with GW so you Escort types can chop them into catfood.
Wouldn't make sense for anything other than a nimble escort unless you're like me and like to dive through groups dumping Warp Plasma.
I think science ships would get the least use out of them.
Only escort/raptors, and raiders can really take advantage of the entire pilot spec tree.
it works with carrier pets but they have to be close, which rarely happens. The ability is upgraded, however, to buff yourself if "friend or foe" is near you.
To the OP, the immunity is really nice to have, and danger zone is great. Scratch the paint is awesome and shield scraping can be nice.
Well, it certainly was not my intention to give offense. Apologies
In truth I have not flown an escort much. I just can't handle the extreme maneuverability, I always wind up pointing somewhere other than where I intended. I do, however, understand Escorts well enough to work with them as part of a team. You will please note that in my reply to coldnapalm, I said specifically "My main function is to bunch things up with GW so you Escort types can chop them into catfood". You guys are the main killers, my job is support, and I acknowledge that. But if we work together, we can accomplish wonders
All that stuff that relies on 2km is indeed worthless, because it will never trigger. Should be increased to 5km.
And I like what Chastity said about playing support. One of my proudest moments actually wasn't GW...it was a well-timed subsystem targeting back in the day, that completely disabled one of Donatra's shield facings when there were incoming heavy plasma torpedoes from a higher-powered teammate, resulting in a 30-second kill before she even had a chance to cloak once.
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It's funny how two people can have entirely different views of the same thing.
Key binds also help compensate.
Most of what Pilot is about may seem confusing, contradictory. But you need to pay attention to the details and think about how that applies in combat. Remember there's more than 1 way to fly and fight in STO.
Those Pilot skills have varying degrees of value and usefulness. Personally, it depends on the ship and most importantly the playstyle.
"Turn The Other Cheek" sounds counter-intuitive for the facing opposite the one getting hit to receive the buff. But if you are the type to fly in the middle of everything, grab aggro and receive fire from all around (which is pretty easy to do with some high powered builds out there), then this skill has value to make your shields much tougher. IMO, this skill is of greater value to the TAC Cruisers that stay in the middle of everything and interestingly of less value to a fast, nimble escort that is zooming in and out of combat. Hell, ANY ship that regularly stays in the thick of the action and can catch aggro will have a great use for it.
"Danger Zone" is another very subtle one. For most players this will not be immediately useful. Even if they know how it works, for how they play, it will not be useful. In addition, most players do not fly in such close proximity to each other, much less for prolonged periods. "Danger Zone" is meant to be used for up close and personal space combat. The more the merrier. Think of the DHC boat rushing in on a clump of NPCs in short range and letting loose with CSV or torp spread. I've used nimble Battlecruisers to fly up close to the same type of groups and let loose BFAW. Combine that with a trait like Point Blank, not to mention that Energy Weapons hit harder the closer you are to the target(s). If the target is tougher, if you stack a trait like Anchored on top of all this? It adds up. If you are one that keeps to fighting at a distance, Danger Zone has zero use for you.
Edit: In general playstyle for me, my Cruisers and Science Vessels have greater use of Pilot than most of my Escorts and their builds, intended playstyles.
With the specializations it's assumed at some point that you will have unlocked all of the abilities. this means that you will have unlocked all of Pilot, Commando, Intel, and Command. You're not wasting points, it's just a matter of when you get access to the other abilities.
With Turn the Other Cheek, you've not paid close enough attention to other ability that comes within that tier which is Thick of It. A 4 second damage immunity is nothing to sneeze at, especially at the right moment. If you're all the time facing one direction then you'll never be able to take full advantage of this ability set. It's assumed that one of 2 things is going on, you're in the middle of a proverbial s*** storm as the saying goes, and/or rotating through your shield facings constantly keeping your strongest shields towards the enemy. Now picture that in conjunction with a Rock & Roll followed after the immunity if you still need more. There's alot of different ways this can be beneficial.
Danger zone: Once again, think of this as to how you can combo it up with other abilities. It gives you some offensive and defensive ability as well. No it won't be used as much as Turn the Other Cheek, but nonetheless it's still a useful ability. also but if I understand it right, it's not limited to strictly player friend/foe but it includes npcs as well.
Overall you're not thinking in terms of the bigger picture as much as you need to do. There's alot of abilities in this game that are situational that I will concede. It will take awhile but eventually you can max out all of your individual specializations which was the original intent.
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Meimei, I often disagree with your comments, but this time we're thinking exactly the same. In a T6 Intel ship, (my KDF Tac's Fleet Qib is a good example), Intelligence is unbeatable. SS and OSS are just awesome, and they're not some frufru maybe-sorta-kinda-use-it-in-some-situation thing, they are direct boosts to damage, that you can use every 30-45 seconds. Nothing tops that.
But for the toon I'm talking about in my OP, a Fed Sci in a Vesta T5-u, there are no specialised stations, so the BOFF powers don't really apply unless she changes ship. And I currently do not see any T6 Sci ships that I like better than my upgraded Vesta. Of course, she could still make use of Critical Flanking, that's a skill not a BOFF power, hmmm. But...if she changes Primary from Pilot to Intel, she'll lose the turn rate bonus from Pilot, no?
I strongly believe that the primary limit on the effectiveness of my Vesta is me. If I was a better player, the damn thing could crank out 30K DPS, I'm sure. Personally I've never seen more than 18K, and that was in Khitomer Space Advanced, where the Borg have huge HP but not great resists.
Now, if there was a T6 Vesta with a Commander Sci/Intel station, that would be the cat's pyjamas!
Ah, I'm babbling; need more coffee. I was awakened this morning by workmen with a jackhammer doing something downstairs, which has got to be one definition of justifiable homicide. Where are the Iconians when you really need them?
That's a really good point about stealing aggro so your teammates can do something that needs to not be interrupted! That's the kind of subtle thinking I really admire, because I know I'm not good at it myself
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That depends. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. It only takes one cluebie in an FAW failboat to break the placate. Some people just spam spacebar nonstop from habit.