Shields up, Hull gone, ship goes boom!

captainchaos66 · July 2016

The newest baddies appear to have stolen something from the borg and modified it to be even more annoying. During the last of the newest missions the "sphere builder" seem to have either a weapon or a skill that goes right through my shields, hit my hull and drains it from 100% to 60% to 30% to BOOM! Now I am not a new player, but I am not a min-maxxer, I play for fun. Am I missing something? My ship is the Vengeance, it has roughly 90,000 Hull, so whatever this skill is makes me nervous about some of my other characters with lower hull, especially those in Escorts.
Is there a counter skill to this? Should I use a specific trait/traits to counteract this. Or just roll my eyes, hit respawn and run at the baddies once again?

sarreous · July 2016

I've had few issues against Jem'Hadar. Example, Hull drops from 100% to 14%, then kablooey. No noticeable damage to shields. I thought maybe it had something to do with me playing on Elite. Then again I've seen the occasional complaint ingame regarding getting blown up by some mystery weapon. Really doesn't help that the recent damage log is broken.

sharpie65 · July 2016

It could be the pain-in-the-TRIBBLE Entropy abilities that the Builder ships use (for example Channelled Deconstruction)..as to it happening with JH, I have no idea as to the cause.

badgerpants999 · July 2016

I've seen this too, I've also noticed that tractor beams rip my hull to pieces, while doing almost nothing in damage terms to enemies. I wonder what happened?

freakium · July 2016

I have a suspicion that tractor beams, or practically any enemy ability that benefits from Particle Generators, is the cause of the problem.

It seems enemies now have Particle Generators set to infinity. My tank of a Bortasqu' which was meant to hull tank was whittled down to 0 hull in under 5 seconds. Next battle I popped a Polarize Hull, I stayed alive.

I hope this is a bug but if it isn't, I highly recommend slotting a Polarize Hull or Attack Pattern: Omega and activating it the second you see your hull going down while your shields are up.

markhawkman · July 2016

Yeah, noticed in Boldly the Rode that the Jem TBR was doing 3k damage each tick. that's insane! Mine would do less than 1000.

e30ernest · July 2016

They spam sci abilities. Your best bet is to build up on resistances via Polarize Hull, Brace for Impact, Hazard Emitters, Aux2SIF etc and get away from the "Hazards" they spawn (Gravity Well, Tyken's Rift).

They really don't hit that hard when you know what to do.

sharpie65 · July 2016

markhawkman wrote: »

Yeah, noticed in Boldly the Rode that the Jem TBR was doing 3k damage each tick. that's insane! Mine would do less than 1000.

badgerpants999 wrote: »

I've seen this too, I've also noticed that tractor beams rip my hull to pieces, while doing almost nothing in damage terms to enemies. I wonder what happened?

I'm guessing this was on Elite?

markhawkman · July 2016

Normal!

jaguarskx · July 2016

Yeah, this happens on normal difficulty.

Once you get used to it you can develop counter-measure. The simplest and easiest it to fly away... unless of course you are caught in a tractor beam. Then use polarized hull which breaks the tractor beam effect and gives you damage resistance for 15 seconds.

sharpie65 · July 2016

Damn...yes, popping either AP Omega or Polarize Hull is invaluable against those with an itchy tractor-trigger-finger like the Jem'Hadar. Although, the only thing that could possibly make PH attractive at all would be the Nautilus' trait - considering there are better ENS-level science powers than PH (such as Hazard Emitters and Science Team) that get far more utility out of them throughout the game*.

*I know, the BOff training revamp did away with the need for so many BOffs

But still, somebody may forget to switch their skills before going into combat.

odinforever20000 · July 2016

"SHIELDS UP, HULL GONE, SHIP GOES BOOM!"

Sounds like your typical sci tactics :P

antonine3258 · July 2016

If it's the last newest mission, the Expanse has some effect in the first half of the mission that drains hull as well.

markhawkman · July 2016

Polarize hull is actually one of the best hull tanking abilities in the game. Sure it has several esoteric aspects that are situational, but it gives bonus damage resist to all damage sources.

But it's not a heal, and it doesn't help shield tank. However when you NEED to hull tank or die....

bioixi · July 2016

When I asked the same, a developer answered and told me the sphere builders are using the new temporal agent spec powers, which deal shield bypassing physical damage. Your best option is to get some physical damage resistance consoles.

markhawkman · July 2016

Consoles specific to that don't exist. So you must use Neutronium.

odinforever20000 · July 2016

markhawkman wrote: »

Consoles specific to that don't exist. So you must use Neutronium.

I think one of the newest temporal missions eng consoles features Specifically a Physical damage resistance mod...

I dont use any armor at all in PVE content tho (typically less than 14% all rez), If i need it I use Pol hull and/or AuxtoDamp.

jaguarskx · July 2016

markhawkman wrote: »

Consoles specific to that don't exist. So you must use Neutronium.

No, there are other options, though they are more expensive than Neutronium.

Conductive RCS Accelerator consoles and Exotic Particle Field Exciter consoles are craftable items when you reach level 15 in Engineering / Science crafting schools assuming you have the special Doff that allows you to craft those items. These can also be purchased from the Exchange.

If the crafted console turns out to be ultra rare quality, then will receive a random mod. The resistance mods are as follows:

ResA - Resistance to 4 types of energy weapons.
ResB - Resistance to 4 other types of energy weapons.
Kin - Resistance to Kinetic damage (similar to Neutronium)
ResAll - All of the above.

The first 3 are fairly inexpensive. Prior to AoY and the mass influx of new captains, ultra rare Conductive RCS Accelerator console MK XII with any of the 1st 3 mods probably sold for around 8m each. The Mk XII [ResAll] sold for around 15m. Although I saw four ultra rare Conductive RCS Accelerator Mk XIV [ResAll] for 12m - 13m EC each and I snagged all of them. Since AoY released I have seen Mk XII [ResAll] selling for at least 30m EC. As for the current prices of the others... don't know, I don't bother with them.

The Exotic Particle Field Exciter consoles with the [ResAll] mod are around 10m to 15m EC more expensive than the RCS consoles.

captainchaos66 · July 2016

Thanks for all the responses and tips. One question: I noticed not many of the responders have said they too have this issue. Is it because not many have played the new missions? Or because almost everyone has better builds than me? Likely the later.
I went back and looked at the build and recalled that I did a rush build job on the ship. I was so excited to get it and fly it I didn't bother optimizing my build. I will do that, as well as incorporate the suggestions I have gotten and see what happens.
Thanks again!

markhawkman · July 2016

I always build every ship to tank. The type of enemy might require a different choice of tanking skills though.

odinforever20000 · July 2016

captainchaos66 wrote: »

Thanks for all the responses and tips. One question: I noticed not many of the responders have said they too have this issue. Is it because not many have played the new missions? Or because almost everyone has better builds than me? Likely the later.
I went back and looked at the build and recalled that I did a rush build job on the ship. I was so excited to get it and fly it I didn't bother optimizing my build. I will do that, as well as incorporate the suggestions I have gotten and see what happens.
Thanks again!

It likely you haven't optimized for tanking or arent into Massive amounts of destruction (requiring less tanking :P)..

I've played the new missions.My Hull heals are:Reactive armor console,Haz emitters, and either the Dyson set (4) or the Assimilated set (3) and energy refresher space trait on my tiny sci ship.. Granted I can be overwhelmed once a certain number of ships is present but I typically play most missions on advanced.

kyle223cat · July 2016

I thought neutroniums didn't protect against physical damage, they just say +Energy and +Kinetic Damage Resistance, not +ALL Damage Resistance.

odinforever20000 · July 2016

kyle223cat wrote: »

I thought neutroniums didn't protect against physical damage, they just say +Energy and +Kinetic Damage Resistance, not +ALL Damage Resistance.

Im pretty sure your right...One of the more recent episodes does have a conlse that is +50 (MK 14 VR) Physical Damage resist.

Shields up, Hull gone, ship goes boom!

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