Marauading force vs Orion slavers

jade1280 · June 2016

From my understanding MF are basucally the hanger pet version of the launch boarding party shuttle boff ability which i can see good use in for disrupting my enemies power levels once they get in range. However the OS claim to actually be capable of stealling EC and commodities after using them for awhile i have never actually seen them achieve that so i am wondering if they are bugged and if i should forget about them.

Opinions/thoughts?

hugin1205 · June 2016

They used to work - but I think they are bugged now. Maybe search the bug Report Forum for more info.

nikephorus · June 2016

I have Elite Orion pets on one of my toons and I never get anything good...usually a bit of ec that's about it. I read somewhere that the advanced versions have a smaller table of items that it steals and that contraband is part of that table, but I can't confirm that myself.

schloopdoo · June 2016

The best reason to use the Slaver shuttles is that, unless you have the Rozhenko Timeship hangar pets from owning the Paradox Temporal Dreadnought, the Slavers are the only KDF hangar pets with beam arrays. That makes them less likely to be caught in an enemy ship's reactor breach than a fighter with cannons, and beam hangar pets play very nicely with the Starship Trait from the T6 Escort Carrier ships.

orionsrule · June 2016

The secret to using (and gaining goodies) with slavers is patience. If you are charging in with torpedo spread and FAW then the slavers never have a chance to get anything. You want to be able to kill single targets that might kill the pets faster than you can replace them, but otherwise you want to hang back in the 10 - 15 range and let the pets do the work. Speed runs of any kind are the wrong places to gain from the slaver pets.

Elite slavers are good because of the beam and torpedo. They will kill things at an ok rate but still have a chance at stealing something. And I stress it is a chance, not a certainty.

A typical run for me will net 3 to 7 contraband, 6 to 15 rare commodities, 60 or more common commodities, several thousand ec, and of course a bunch of loot from defeated ships. The only thing I can be certain of is the contraband, because I've seen commodities show up in loot.

But lets be serious here, what is a "typical run" for me.

My typical run is going into one of the nebulas to defend against the cardassians, romulans or feds, going into the first instance that has ships, and staying there for at least 30 minutes. Just flying around, killing respawns with the slavers and maybe killing one or two myself because there is a ship that happens to wipe out the pets extremely fast. Or having to kill groups of ships because they respawned so close to each other that they outnumber the 12 slavers I have out.

In a game of "How fast you can blow things up", the slavers lose. In a game of patience, the slavers are great.

lopequil · June 2016

Slavers haven't worked for a long time. I heard somewhere that they'd been fixed quite recently but can't confirm it. Go with the Rozhenkos I say.

orionsrule · June 2016

lopequil wrote: »

Slavers haven't worked for a long time. I heard somewhere that they'd been fixed quite recently but can't confirm it. Go with the Rozhenkos I say.

Slavers have been working fine for me for some time now. I do at least three long runs every weekend, and have for almost 3 months now. However, as I stated earlier, it depends on what you are after. Also OP, be aware that when they do break slavers it sometimes takes a long time befor they fix them again as far as their stealing goods goes.

I can't really comment on the Rozhenkos, as I do not have them.

I think schloopdoo has the best point though. They use beam arrays and will tend to be far enough away from warp core explosions that you don't lose the entire wing. Unless of course you are too near the explosion and they are returning to you.

legendarylycan · June 2016

the slavers work; i pulled 7 contraband, among other things, off dominion ships with elite slavers just the other day while doing The Factory

orionsrule · June 2016

Yeah, they are working. I just did a quick run through Japori. Let the pets do all the work while I flew around playing target. Did not pick up any loot.

In just over 6 minutes:

2200 ec
4 provisions
1 contraband

Looks about right for my usual RNG luck. Elite Slavers with wing commander and scramble fighters traits slotted.

lordgyor · July 2016

I have no idea how Marauding Force shuttles work now that the crew mechanic has been disabled, because they used a modified verison of Boarding Party that used to kill crew.

jade1280 · July 2016

lordgyor wrote: »

I have no idea how Marauding Force shuttles work now that the crew mechanic has been disabled, because they used a modified verison of Boarding Party that used to kill crew.

As far as i can figure out they actually attack subsystems and cause power drains and offline's.

rattler2 · July 2016

I like Slavers myself. I'm actually less concerned with stealing things then I am the fact that's 12 extra beam arrays that also drop mines everywhere. ^^

lordgyor · July 2016

"As far as i can figure out they actually attack subsystems and cause power drains and offline's."

You mean they didn't before?

jade1280 · July 2016

lordgyor wrote: »

"As far as i can figure out they actually attack subsystems and cause power drains and offline's."

You mean they didn't before?

Very sure they did that as well before the crew mechanic was removed.

lordgyor · July 2016

Okay I jumped into my Breen Carrier to test my pets having realized that I haven't tried any other then the Elite Slavers since the skills revamp.

The Armoured Force Marauders still seem to suck, except that they're over 17,000 hull points.

My Elite Slavers can get over 8,000 hull points.

And much to my surprise my Taychon Drones have over 9,000 hull points.

When combined with Quick Deploy, a Flight Deck Officer that cuts the launch CD, Wing Commander, Reactive Repair Nanites, and Scramble Fighters, the new Hangar skills, the Elite Taychon Drones don't suck anymore, as long as you pair them with something like Elite Slavers.

I tested them against the new temporal red alert, the Borg of K'Tanis, and the Kazon in Agala.

The Slavers tended to draw alot of the heat away from the Taychon Drones, and Scramble fighters healed them and made them temporaily invulerible, as well as boost the damage from their turret, and boosting the damage of the Elite Slavers.

As long as my pets weren't caught in a massive swarm of probes and spheres, the Elite Tachyon Drones would rip the targets shields down far faster then expected, when would allow the Elite Slavers' photon torpedoes and quantum mines to rip the enemy ship to pieces, much faster then it used to.

I personally would only suggest Elite Tachyon Drones on a full carrier if they're paired with something like Elite Slavers or Elite Scorpians, BoPs ect...

Or on a single hangar ship if your going for Torpedo Boat.

I also tried the combo of Tachyon Drones and Slavers while firing off a bioneural warhead from a safe distance and that is INSANELY effective.

I was able to just shred Cubes, as long as probes and spheres didn't gang up on me in large numbers.

jade1280 · July 2016

lordgyor wrote: »

Okay I jumped into my Breen Carrier to test my pets having realized that I haven't tried any other then the Elite Slavers since the skills revamp.

The Armoured Force Marauders still seem to suck, except that they're over 17,000 hull points.

My Elite Slavers can get over 8,000 hull points.

And much to my surprise my Taychon Drones have over 9,000 hull points.

When combined with Quick Deploy, a Flight Deck Officer that cuts the launch CD, Wing Commander, Reactive Repair Nanites, and Scramble Fighters, the new Hangar skills, the Elite Taychon Drones don't suck anymore, as long as you pair them with something like Elite Slavers.

I tested them against the new temporal red alert, the Borg of K'Tanis, and the Kazon in Agala.

The Slavers tended to draw alot of the heat away from the Taychon Drones, and Scramble fighters healed them and made them temporaily invulerible, as well as boost the damage from their turret, and boosting the damage of the Elite Slavers.

As long as my pets weren't caught in a massive swarm of probes and spheres, the Elite Tachyon Drones would rip the targets shields down far faster then expected, when would allow the Elite Slavers' photon torpedoes and quantum mines to rip the enemy ship to pieces, much faster then it used to.

I personally would only suggest Elite Tachyon Drones on a full carrier if they're paired with something like Elite Slavers or Elite Scorpians, BoPs ect...

Or on a single hangar ship if your going for Torpedo Boat.

I also tried the combo of Tachyon Drones and Slavers while firing off a bioneural warhead from a safe distance and that is INSANELY effective.

I was able to just shred Cubes, as long as probes and spheres didn't gang up on me in large numbers.

Thanks for the feedback and indepth thoughts

lordgyor · July 2016

Your welcome!

Marauading force vs Orion slavers

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