A great rebalance is also a great chance to look at underpowered and underused powers and see what could be done about them. Some have already been addressed, and there might be more in the works.
So here are a few powers I was thinking about. There are undoubtedly more.
Eject Warp Plasma and Coolant Ignition
These powers are relatively similar, and I think the weakness is similar, too. I think the biggest problem is that the way they are applied does not work itself well into the play style for hte ships they are used on
Mostly Cruisers can use EWP. Cruisers have weak turn rates in general, and often benefit the most from broadsiding. Cruisers lack turn rate and speed to position EWPs effectively.
Mostly (Pilot) Escorts can use Coolant Ignition. They have great turn rates, but their damage output is usually forward facing, CI means they need to show their enemy their back. Also, the best damage buffs for Escorts and Raiders tend to be Commander and Lt.Cmdr level skills.
Both ship classes rear arc is also the weakest, so it's rarely really desirable to try to maneuver for an effective EWP/CI.
Basically, the only times these powers are really useful is if the enemy can catch you in your rear arc and you can't escape. That's something that just doesn't happen in PvE. It might happen in PvP
Ideas:
None great, really. More damage, lower cooldown,larger area perhaps? Some side effect (like a speed buff, turn rate buff?)
Subspace Beacon
A utility power with a utility power that very few use, and Subspace Vortex does the job better, on top of being able to deal damage. Ideas:
1) Remove the e in the second word. Advantage: Sounds taste. Drawback: Might turn off Vegetarians
2) Grant an Ambush like attack and stealth buff, and or cause a warp shadow (basically the Picard Maneuver effect) that has threat and cancels yours (at least when not threatening)Also, remove the distance at which it's dispelled - just make it not teleport beyond the range.
Ambush Marker
Unfortunately, there are very few enemies that could be drawn into an ambush (or where it would make sense to draw them into one.). Might be somewhat more useful in PvP for a non-cloak-capable team, except the problem is that if you're cloaked, no one finds you in the first place. You'd need to lay a bait, but then you can expect it also to take the full brunt of the enemy.
Ideas:
Maybe the Ambush Marker should actively draw aggro from NPCs within whatever max range won't confuse the AI (I remember that this was a problem with Gravity Well's radius getting too large). Make it spawn an holographic enemy that looks tempting to players and NPCs alike.
Possibly raise the trigger distance for the ambush, or allow the ambush to be deployed during battle (but not affect you, but at least now you're allies can rush in and pretend they're ambushing.)
Phalanx Formation
An ability that requires a bit of maneuverability to fly through basically arbitrary hoops for a relatively minor benefit. I like the basic idea, I must say, but it just doesn't work so well in practice.
Ideas: Maybe turn it into a moving Rally Point Marker for offensive buffs? I am not really convinced the gates really lead to a decent formation flight, so maybe it should just be an AoE?
Mask Energy Signature
Stealth for people without cloaks. There was a lot already done to buff this power in the past. I think a fundamental problem with MES is that it's like standard cloak - when the fighting starts, it's no longer relevant. And that might be worth a free ability put on your ship, but probably not a full bridge officer slot.
Ideas:
Have it activatable during combat, basically a weak combat battle cloak? Then it might also be fine if it drops shields like regular (battle) cloak.
Maybe it could be an AoE, you're not just masking your own signature, but also that of others?
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I also tried out running a few mines today on Tribble. I haven't used mines in a long time (since probably forever), so I am not sure how they compare to before, but I can say that my torpedo builds are still more effective. I am not very impressed with the Mine Patterns, I got a lot more out of buffing my front torpedoes then out of my mines. Maybe the Mine Patterns shouldn't just cause a different number and a different pattern of mines to appear, but also combine this with some type of debuff - maybe the mines could ensnare enemies, lower shield hardness or hull resistance, apply an accurary penalty?
Of course, I used specialty torpedoes (Delphic Torpedo and Terran Task Force Torpedo) with this build and standard mines (Transphasic and Tri-Cobalt), so that might distort the perception a bit. Standard torpedoes are generally not considered particularly valuable either.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
Inspired by rereading the changes to Photonic Shockwave: Shouldn't things that grant negative kinetic resistance also grant negative physical resistance?
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
If physical damage is mostly being use to represent exotic temporal nastiness, and kinetic mostly refers to torpedoes... No, kinetic resistant effects shouldn't extend to physical damage. The addition of physical damage resistance to GEAR for free is mostly a piece of catch-up after a slew of physical damage effects were added (that completely swamped what little PvP gameplay is left).
I think the [Console - Universal - Regenerative Integrity Field] was hit a bit too hard. I understand that it was a pretty powerful heal, but I think it was nuked pretty hard.
On tribble, it was not hit in 1 area, but 3. A triple nerf basically.
Duration reduced from 20 to 10 seconds.
Procs per second cap reduced from 10 to 5
Instant heal taken down by like ~25%.
With just 1 and 2 there, that's effectively a 75% reduction of it's healing potential.
This is an extremely high value console that people were tossing $100+ at Phoenix packs to get. I can understand toning down the procs per second, but I don't think 20s duration on a 2m Clicky console is absurd. I'd like to see it back at 20s myself atleast, anyone else feel the same?
If physical damage is mostly being use to represent exotic temporal nastiness, and kinetic mostly refers to torpedoes... No, kinetic resistant effects shouldn't extend to physical damage. The addition of physical damage resistance to GEAR for free is mostly a piece of catch-up after a slew of physical damage effects were added (that completely swamped what little PvP gameplay is left).
You may be correct. Though it opens up a design space for stuff that explicitely debuffs physical resists. (Of course, most debuffs tend to simply affect all forms of resistance.)
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
A great rebalance is also a great chance to look at underpowered and underused powers and see what could be done about them. Some have already been addressed, and there might be more in the works.
So here are a few powers I was thinking about. There are undoubtedly more.
Eject Warp Plasma and Coolant Ignition
These powers are relatively similar, and I think the weakness is similar, too. I think the biggest problem is that the way they are applied does not work itself well into the play style for hte ships they are used on
Mostly Cruisers can use EWP. Cruisers have weak turn rates in general, and often benefit the most from broadsiding. Cruisers lack turn rate and speed to position EWPs effectively.
Mostly (Pilot) Escorts can use Coolant Ignition. They have great turn rates, but their damage output is usually forward facing, CI means they need to show their enemy their back. Also, the best damage buffs for Escorts and Raiders tend to be Commander and Lt.Cmdr level skills.
Both ship classes rear arc is also the weakest, so it's rarely really desirable to try to maneuver for an effective EWP/CI.
Basically, the only times these powers are really useful is if the enemy can catch you in your rear arc and you can't escape. That's something that just doesn't happen in PvE. It might happen in PvP
I think this one should drift towards hulls like mines. Make up some excuse like their ships energy creates a slight magnetic effect which pulls the Ionized particles toward them. As well as slight increase in damage, with the same kinda scaling as gravity well.
This is an extremely high value console that people were tossing $100+ at Phoenix packs to get. I can understand toning down the procs per second, but I don't think 20s duration on a 2m Clicky console is absurd. I'd like to see it back at 20s myself atleast, anyone else feel the same?
Yeah, I agree. Whether intended or not, customers have been persuaded to spend huge amounts of dilithium primarily to get very good, no longer available consoles. While the heal shouldn't be as good as Miracle Worker, it should be at least comparable to the DPRM that is a non-exclusive console and looks like it's going to be preferred over the RIF.
On another matter, can I request that the threat decrease/threat increase value is increased on the embassy consoles to balance out the fact that people will no longer be fitting four or five of them on one ship. Tanks need to be able to grab threat with much less dps now, and simply can't afford to sacrifice more than one or two console slots for weapon amplifiers, since those consoles now give virtually no benefit to a typical beam boat build.
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch." "We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Passion and Serenity are one.
I gain power by understanding both.
In the chaos of their battle, I bring order.
I am a shadow, darkness born from light.
The Force is united within me.
I think the [Console - Universal - Regenerative Integrity Field] was hit a bit too hard. I understand that it was a pretty powerful heal, but I think it was nuked pretty hard.
On tribble, it was not hit in 1 area, but 3. A triple nerf basically.
Duration reduced from 20 to 10 seconds.
Procs per second cap reduced from 10 to 5
Instant heal taken down by like ~25%.
With just 1 and 2 there, that's effectively a 75% reduction of it's healing potential.
This is an extremely high value console that people were tossing $100+ at Phoenix packs to get. I can understand toning down the procs per second, but I don't think 20s duration on a 2m Clicky console is absurd. I'd like to see it back at 20s myself atleast, anyone else feel the same?
I agree, considering it's a 2m cooldown and takes up a valuable console slot, this nerf is unreasonably heavy handed.
On the stats window, would it also be possible to have a line to tell us what exactly our shield hardness is?
Also looking around in the skill tree, there's not many things remaining that are "bad" choices. However, there is still something that heavily stands out as bad, Damage Control.
With the latest round of stuff we got with the anniversary on holodeck, we have the capability to have >1,000% Hull Regen for 20s every 80-120s (depending on whether we're running the sets) via the Dynamic Power Redistributor Module (DPRM) and Lukari Protomatter Field Projector consoles. These are in combat buffs, that are extremely powerful when combined.
Then we see Damage Control in the skill tree. All 3 points in it give us 100% Hull Regen out of combat, 20% in combat. This is extremely low as it is now, meaning there's basically no build that will benefit from taking it. It's hard to say how far it should be raised, but I think it'd start to be a bit interesting if the in combat number were like 10x where it currently is. As it stands, it just isn't worth it, even on builds that need all the survivability they can get.
I completely disagree. Power creep has resulted in these console stats being through the roof OP.
If devs are going to reduce dps of tac and sci captains then there's no need for such a massive amount of heal from these kinds of consoles. Whilst this point only applies to pvp, you have to admit that nobody really needs to use these dynamic power redistribution and protomatter field consoles to survive in pve because the target doesn't pump out enough dmg to warrant it.
you have to admit that nobody really needs to use these dynamic power redistribution and protomatter field consoles to survive in pve because the target doesn't pump out enough dmg to warrant it.
For the normal/ advanced/ easy elite's, sure. However, there are some instances where those heals are needed, most notably, Hive Space Elite. You need a lot of survivability in that map, and these consoles, while OP, sometimes aren't enough to keep tanks alive in there.
you have to admit that nobody really needs to use these dynamic power redistribution and protomatter field consoles to survive in pve because the target doesn't pump out enough dmg to warrant it.
For the normal/ advanced/ easy elite's, sure. However, there are some instances where those heals are needed, most notably, Hive Space Elite. You need a lot of survivability in that map, and these consoles, while OP, sometimes aren't enough to keep tanks alive in there.
But is the only solution "overpowered" heals, or a more fine-grained approach to tanking (e.g. choosing times where you don't tank or have players split the tanking duties), equipping more regular heals and encouraging more cross-healing?
Or is the problem that tanking requires investing into damage powers more than healing, otherwise you're just sitting around invulnerable but not being targeted either?
I personally don't know the answer to that, to be clear.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
But is the only solution "overpowered" heals, or a more fine-grained approach to tanking (e.g. choosing times where you don't tank or have players split the tanking duties), equipping more regular heals and encouraging more cross-healing?
You can have multiple people tanking to help counter that, but that comes at the cost of team DPS and the overall run time.
Or is the problem that tanking requires investing into damage powers more than healing, otherwise you're just sitting around invulnerable but not being targeted either?
That is still largely the issue that PvE tanks face. It'd help quite a bit of Engineers had some super-taunt or some extra threat gen given to them to help them in the tank role.
As it stands, what we're seeing on Tribble in HSE is that an Eng can do pretty well tanking wise, but the issue is they simply can't pull threat off of 4 DPSers doing 100-150k+ over there. Due to that threat gen limitation, I imagine we'll see HSE simply go back to 5 Scimitars chaining Warp Shadows and Deploy Sensor Platforms.
But is the only solution "overpowered" heals, or a more fine-grained approach to tanking (e.g. choosing times where you don't tank or have players split the tanking duties), equipping more regular heals and encouraging more cross-healing?
You can have multiple people tanking to help counter that, but that comes at the cost of team DPS and the overall run time.
I think that is a bit of a feature, though. If people are forced to make actual compromises instead of just piling on more DPS, then the whole aspect of healing, tanking and giving members of the team different roles, coordinating team setup and coordinating team actions becomes stronger. The previous records in completion time and DPS might no longer be reachable, but that was kinda expected if a game balancing attempt also includes nerfs, wasn't it?
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
I think that is a bit of a feature, though. If people are forced to make actual compromises instead of just piling on more DPS, then the whole aspect of healing, tanking and giving members of the team different roles, coordinating team setup and coordinating team actions becomes stronger.
In this case, it just means we'll be setting records with 5 Tac Scimis chaining warp shadows and deploy sensor platforms. We'll go back to how they were done long ago, and skip the dedicated tank entirely.
On the stats window, would it also be possible to have a line to tell us what exactly our shield hardness is?
Also looking around in the skill tree, there's not many things remaining that are "bad" choices. However, there is still something that heavily stands out as bad, Damage Control.
With the latest round of stuff we got with the anniversary on holodeck, we have the capability to have >1,000% Hull Regen for 20s every 80-120s (depending on whether we're running the sets) via the Dynamic Power Redistributor Module (DPRM) and Lukari Protomatter Field Projector consoles. These are in combat buffs, that are extremely powerful when combined.
Then we see Damage Control in the skill tree. All 3 points in it give us 100% Hull Regen out of combat, 20% in combat. This is extremely low as it is now, meaning there's basically no build that will benefit from taking it. It's hard to say how far it should be raised, but I think it'd start to be a bit interesting if the in combat number were like 10x where it currently is. As it stands, it just isn't worth it, even on builds that need all the survivability they can get.
Question, since it seems to be a somwhat hidden thing, or at least not stated clearly...that 1000% is a percentage of what value, and regenerated over what span of time? I know that the two effects piled on top of each other can out-regenerate almost anything, but I just want to be able to quantify it for my own understanding.
Question, since it seems to be a somwhat hidden thing, or at least not stated clearly...that 1000% is a percentage of what value, and regenerated over what span of time? I know that the two effects piled on top of each other can out-regenerate almost anything, but I just want to be able to quantify it for my own understanding.
1,000% of Hull Healed per Minute
So, basically, for those 20s, you're getting healing equal to your entire HP once every 6s. So if you have 150k HP, that's 150k HP healed over 6s, or 25k HPS for those 20s.
Feedback/Request to Adjust "Lone Wolf" (Pilot Specialization)
While playing around on Tribble with the upcoming changes, I've been experimenting with different combinations of Primary and Secondary specializations. One thing that has stood out is that, for the Tier 4 "clicky" abilities, Lone Wolf seems to have an incredibly short active period (10 sec) combined with a very long cooldown (5 min). For what Lone Wolf does (Team Placate, Defense Bonus, and Shield Redistribution), this seems out of line compared to the other Primary Tier 4 abilities. For example:
Intelligence Fleet: 30 sec up, 5 min cooldown - Very powerful ability due to Armor and Shield Penetration. Justifies the 5 min cooldown.
Boost Morale: 4 sec up, 1 min cooldown - Great debuff removal. 1 min cooldown makes sense for what it does.
Continuity: Instant BOFF recharge + Big Hull and Shield heal, 3 min cooldown - This does a fantastic combination of things and has a 3 min cooldown.
I think the 3 above abilities have well-balanced cooldowns considering their respective powers. I would like to propose that Lone Wolf is somehow adjusted to make it more in-line with the others. By either adding something to the ability or increasing the defense/shield re-distribution duration to make the 5 min cooldown seem justified or by lowering the cooldown (in the range of 2 to 3 minutes).
Feedback/Request to Adjust "Lone Wolf" (Pilot Specialization)
While playing around on Tribble with the upcoming changes, I've been experimenting with different combinations of Primary and Secondary specializations. One thing that has stood out is that, for the Tier 4 "clicky" abilities, Lone Wolf seems to have an incredibly short active period (10 sec) combined with a very long cooldown (5 min). For what Lone Wolf does (Team Placate, Defense Bonus, and Shield Redistribution), this seems out of line compared to the other Primary Tier 4 abilities. For example:
Intelligence Fleet: 30 sec up, 5 min cooldown - Very powerful ability due to Armor and Shield Penetration. Justifies the 5 min cooldown.
Boost Morale: 4 sec up, 1 min cooldown - Great debuff removal. 1 min cooldown makes sense for what it does.
Continuity: Instant BOFF recharge + Big Hull and Shield heal, 3 min cooldown - This does a fantastic combination of things and has a 3 min cooldown.
I think the 3 above abilities have well-balanced cooldowns considering their respective powers. I would like to propose that Lone Wolf is somehow adjusted to make it more in-line with the others. By either adding something to the ability or increasing the defense/shield re-distribution duration to make the 5 min cooldown seem justified or by lowering the cooldown (in the range of 2 to 3 minutes).
does boost moral even work last time i tested it, it didn't
Feedback/Request to Adjust "Lone Wolf" (Pilot Specialization)
While playing around on Tribble with the upcoming changes, I've been experimenting with different combinations of Primary and Secondary specializations. One thing that has stood out is that, for the Tier 4 "clicky" abilities, Lone Wolf seems to have an incredibly short active period (10 sec) combined with a very long cooldown (5 min). For what Lone Wolf does (Team Placate, Defense Bonus, and Shield Redistribution), this seems out of line compared to the other Primary Tier 4 abilities. For example:
Intelligence Fleet: 30 sec up, 5 min cooldown - Very powerful ability due to Armor and Shield Penetration. Justifies the 5 min cooldown.
Boost Morale: 4 sec up, 1 min cooldown - Great debuff removal. 1 min cooldown makes sense for what it does.
Continuity: Instant BOFF recharge + Big Hull and Shield heal, 3 min cooldown - This does a fantastic combination of things and has a 3 min cooldown.
I think the 3 above abilities have well-balanced cooldowns considering their respective powers. I would like to propose that Lone Wolf is somehow adjusted to make it more in-line with the others. By either adding something to the ability or increasing the defense/shield re-distribution duration to make the 5 min cooldown seem justified or by lowering the cooldown (in the range of 2 to 3 minutes).
does boost moral even work last time i tested it, it didn't
yep it works. I use it all the time on Holodeck. It was great in the Breach Event in the small power core room when someone popped the ??? cores. There are some debuffs that have no cleanse like the stingers in the Japori system so Boost Moral won't work there, but it clears almost all other debuffs.
By the way, the Demolition Teams change - I tried it on Tribble, and was still underwhelmed. I can't say I really noticed its existence, though I was only fighting normal enemies in Japori and other Romulan patrols. Maybe something cool like a subsystem disable / stun effect could be added.
Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
By the way, the Demolition Teams change - I tried it on Tribble, and was still underwhelmed. I can't say I really noticed its existence, though I was only fighting normal enemies in Japori and other Romulan patrols. Maybe something cool like a subsystem disable / stun effect could be added.
Stunning effect is probably the way to go to keep it from being too much like boarding parties, thematically it makes sense since a explosion from inside a ship would certainly shock the crew as well as the the Inertial dampeners.
Feedback/Request to Adjust "Lone Wolf" (Pilot Specialization)
While playing around on Tribble with the upcoming changes, I've been experimenting with different combinations of Primary and Secondary specializations. One thing that has stood out is that, for the Tier 4 "clicky" abilities, Lone Wolf seems to have an incredibly short active period (10 sec) combined with a very long cooldown (5 min). For what Lone Wolf does (Team Placate, Defense Bonus, and Shield Redistribution), this seems out of line compared to the other Primary Tier 4 abilities. For example:
Intelligence Fleet: 30 sec up, 5 min cooldown - Very powerful ability due to Armor and Shield Penetration. Justifies the 5 min cooldown.
Boost Morale: 4 sec up, 1 min cooldown - Great debuff removal. 1 min cooldown makes sense for what it does.
Continuity: Instant BOFF recharge + Big Hull and Shield heal, 3 min cooldown - This does a fantastic combination of things and has a 3 min cooldown.
I think the 3 above abilities have well-balanced cooldowns considering their respective powers. I would like to propose that Lone Wolf is somehow adjusted to make it more in-line with the others. By either adding something to the ability or increasing the defense/shield re-distribution duration to make the 5 min cooldown seem justified or by lowering the cooldown (in the range of 2 to 3 minutes).
does boost moral even work last time i tested it, it didn't
yep it works. I use it all the time on Holodeck. It was great in the Breach Event in the small power core room when someone popped the ??? cores. There are some debuffs that have no cleanse like the stingers in the Japori system so Boost Moral won't work there, but it clears almost all other debuffs.
Granted it was a long time ago but it didn't seem to work against, debuffs that impede movement.
Summary(my opinion):
good changes:
-buff of engineer captain(miracle worker his other captain abilties)
-Nerf of FAW
-Maco shield can work woth plasmonic leech
-balancing many OP consoles(leech)
-Beam Overload is buffed(usefull now)
-nerf of plasmaproc
etc
What i find bad that the plasmonic leech noc longer and that [Console - Universal - Regenerative Integrity Field] is only 10 seconds and its heal abiltity too much nerfed.The wprst is that the science captain who played at exotic abiltites is now too much nerfed and nearly useless.It must be a golden middle way for the science exotic captain.
The Devs should take this combo out:
Probability Manipulation(50 % crith) and attack pattern alpha.....
They could change the 50% crith that is only work for exotoc particle abilties.
That is why today is possible to make 200+ k dps.....
All Pets need to be buffed(runabouts,voth fighter to frigates)...not only the frigates
The Embassy Science Explosive consoles should be completely removed from the game. As nerfing them to high heavens makes them useless. Same with plasmonic leech. Cryp[tic had removed items before, they can do so now.
If their aim/goal is to create balance or fun - they need to take a hard look also at starship traits, rep traits, Universal consoles, heck even some lock box ships. They need to doa complete re-start ala wipe.
Wish we didn't have so many abilities. How are console players supposed to button mash to the same degree as pc players. A great improvement would be to reduce the number of abilities we can use at any one time or bring back the activation delay between more powers. Then console players can play space with an effectiveness closer to that of pc players.
Ontop of that, it doesn't make sense to activate most abilities within a matter of a couple seconds because it's just not possible to physically say those things to each and every bridge officer in a bridge environment. This thinking naturally leads to how player personal attack patterns are formed, where their preferred choice of grouped up skills can be activated with a single command. Attack patterns can give each class of captain a more prominently tactical experience, where their assessment of situations warrants multiple ability activations.
Can we sort out reputation traits aswell? Newer ones like space heals found in the lukari tree are very powerful compared to the traits of the older trees. The older traits were fun because the game wasn't about stacking numbers on numbers and now it puts me off playing. I'm sick of grinding for the very next best thing. Why can't the new things brought out be of the same power as previously released abilities. That way, people get the opportunity to choose between powers, rather than simply going off what is the best heal or the best dmg increase. I can tell you that alot of us don't want to use lukari or iconian or whatever else when we enjoyed using more Dyson and omega traits because our time feels wasted with grinding. It's all new new new with no respect for the old, nostalgic powers or old enemies that made actual trek fans want to play. For example, I thought the borg could adapt to new threats, where are their assimilated set enhancements and 4pc warp core?
Please find a way to make this work for everyone devs.
Wish we didn't have so many abilities. How are console players supposed to button mash to the same degree as pc players. A great improvement would be to reduce the number of abilities we can use at any one time or bring back the activation delay between more powers. Then console players can play space with an effectiveness closer to that of pc players.
So, just in order to satisfy some whim of console player(s), let's dumb game totally down for PC players who have been playing for much longer time? How about no. *holds back a comment about console peas... players*.
Comments
So here are a few powers I was thinking about. There are undoubtedly more.
Eject Warp Plasma and Coolant Ignition
These powers are relatively similar, and I think the weakness is similar, too. I think the biggest problem is that the way they are applied does not work itself well into the play style for hte ships they are used on
Mostly Cruisers can use EWP. Cruisers have weak turn rates in general, and often benefit the most from broadsiding. Cruisers lack turn rate and speed to position EWPs effectively.
Mostly (Pilot) Escorts can use Coolant Ignition. They have great turn rates, but their damage output is usually forward facing, CI means they need to show their enemy their back. Also, the best damage buffs for Escorts and Raiders tend to be Commander and Lt.Cmdr level skills.
Both ship classes rear arc is also the weakest, so it's rarely really desirable to try to maneuver for an effective EWP/CI.
Basically, the only times these powers are really useful is if the enemy can catch you in your rear arc and you can't escape. That's something that just doesn't happen in PvE. It might happen in PvP
Ideas:
None great, really. More damage, lower cooldown,larger area perhaps? Some side effect (like a speed buff, turn rate buff?)
Subspace Beacon
A utility power with a utility power that very few use, and Subspace Vortex does the job better, on top of being able to deal damage.
Ideas:
1) Remove the e in the second word. Advantage: Sounds taste. Drawback: Might turn off Vegetarians
2) Grant an Ambush like attack and stealth buff, and or cause a warp shadow (basically the Picard Maneuver effect) that has threat and cancels yours (at least when not threatening)Also, remove the distance at which it's dispelled - just make it not teleport beyond the range.
Ambush Marker
Unfortunately, there are very few enemies that could be drawn into an ambush (or where it would make sense to draw them into one.). Might be somewhat more useful in PvP for a non-cloak-capable team, except the problem is that if you're cloaked, no one finds you in the first place. You'd need to lay a bait, but then you can expect it also to take the full brunt of the enemy.
Ideas:
Maybe the Ambush Marker should actively draw aggro from NPCs within whatever max range won't confuse the AI (I remember that this was a problem with Gravity Well's radius getting too large). Make it spawn an holographic enemy that looks tempting to players and NPCs alike.
Possibly raise the trigger distance for the ambush, or allow the ambush to be deployed during battle (but not affect you, but at least now you're allies can rush in and pretend they're ambushing.)
Phalanx Formation
An ability that requires a bit of maneuverability to fly through basically arbitrary hoops for a relatively minor benefit. I like the basic idea, I must say, but it just doesn't work so well in practice.
Ideas: Maybe turn it into a moving Rally Point Marker for offensive buffs? I am not really convinced the gates really lead to a decent formation flight, so maybe it should just be an AoE?
Mask Energy Signature
Stealth for people without cloaks. There was a lot already done to buff this power in the past. I think a fundamental problem with MES is that it's like standard cloak - when the fighting starts, it's no longer relevant. And that might be worth a free ability put on your ship, but probably not a full bridge officer slot.
Ideas:
Have it activatable during combat, basically a weak combat battle cloak? Then it might also be fine if it drops shields like regular (battle) cloak.
Maybe it could be an AoE, you're not just masking your own signature, but also that of others?
Of course, I used specialty torpedoes (Delphic Torpedo and Terran Task Force Torpedo) with this build and standard mines (Transphasic and Tri-Cobalt), so that might distort the perception a bit. Standard torpedoes are generally not considered particularly valuable either.
On tribble, it was not hit in 1 area, but 3. A triple nerf basically.
With just 1 and 2 there, that's effectively a 75% reduction of it's healing potential.
This is an extremely high value console that people were tossing $100+ at Phoenix packs to get. I can understand toning down the procs per second, but I don't think 20s duration on a 2m Clicky console is absurd. I'd like to see it back at 20s myself atleast, anyone else feel the same?
IMHO, no I don't feel the same. It was an OP heal stronger than miracle worker.
Nerfs welcome thanks.
Yeah, I agree. Whether intended or not, customers have been persuaded to spend huge amounts of dilithium primarily to get very good, no longer available consoles. While the heal shouldn't be as good as Miracle Worker, it should be at least comparable to the DPRM that is a non-exclusive console and looks like it's going to be preferred over the RIF.
On another matter, can I request that the threat decrease/threat increase value is increased on the embassy consoles to balance out the fact that people will no longer be fitting four or five of them on one ship. Tanks need to be able to grab threat with much less dps now, and simply can't afford to sacrifice more than one or two console slots for weapon amplifiers, since those consoles now give virtually no benefit to a typical beam boat build.
what is a DPRM? i didn't see anything in that build that matched that acronym
#LegalizeAwoo
A normie goes "Oh, what's this?"
An otaku goes "UwU, what's this?"
A furry goes "OwO, what's this?"
A werewolf goes "Awoo, what's this?"
"It's nothing personal, I just don't feel like I've gotten to know a person until I've sniffed their crotch."
"We said 'no' to Mr. Curiosity. We're not home. Curiosity is not welcome, it is not to be invited in. Curiosity...is bad. It gets you in trouble, it gets you killed, and more importantly...it makes you poor!"
Also looking around in the skill tree, there's not many things remaining that are "bad" choices. However, there is still something that heavily stands out as bad, Damage Control.
With the latest round of stuff we got with the anniversary on holodeck, we have the capability to have >1,000% Hull Regen for 20s every 80-120s (depending on whether we're running the sets) via the Dynamic Power Redistributor Module (DPRM) and Lukari Protomatter Field Projector consoles. These are in combat buffs, that are extremely powerful when combined.
Then we see Damage Control in the skill tree. All 3 points in it give us 100% Hull Regen out of combat, 20% in combat. This is extremely low as it is now, meaning there's basically no build that will benefit from taking it. It's hard to say how far it should be raised, but I think it'd start to be a bit interesting if the in combat number were like 10x where it currently is. As it stands, it just isn't worth it, even on builds that need all the survivability they can get.
If devs are going to reduce dps of tac and sci captains then there's no need for such a massive amount of heal from these kinds of consoles. Whilst this point only applies to pvp, you have to admit that nobody really needs to use these dynamic power redistribution and protomatter field consoles to survive in pve because the target doesn't pump out enough dmg to warrant it.
For the normal/ advanced/ easy elite's, sure. However, there are some instances where those heals are needed, most notably, Hive Space Elite. You need a lot of survivability in that map, and these consoles, while OP, sometimes aren't enough to keep tanks alive in there.
But is the only solution "overpowered" heals, or a more fine-grained approach to tanking (e.g. choosing times where you don't tank or have players split the tanking duties), equipping more regular heals and encouraging more cross-healing?
Or is the problem that tanking requires investing into damage powers more than healing, otherwise you're just sitting around invulnerable but not being targeted either?
I personally don't know the answer to that, to be clear.
You can have multiple people tanking to help counter that, but that comes at the cost of team DPS and the overall run time.
That is still largely the issue that PvE tanks face. It'd help quite a bit of Engineers had some super-taunt or some extra threat gen given to them to help them in the tank role.
As it stands, what we're seeing on Tribble in HSE is that an Eng can do pretty well tanking wise, but the issue is they simply can't pull threat off of 4 DPSers doing 100-150k+ over there. Due to that threat gen limitation, I imagine we'll see HSE simply go back to 5 Scimitars chaining Warp Shadows and Deploy Sensor Platforms.
In this case, it just means we'll be setting records with 5 Tac Scimis chaining warp shadows and deploy sensor platforms. We'll go back to how they were done long ago, and skip the dedicated tank entirely.
Question, since it seems to be a somwhat hidden thing, or at least not stated clearly...that 1000% is a percentage of what value, and regenerated over what span of time? I know that the two effects piled on top of each other can out-regenerate almost anything, but I just want to be able to quantify it for my own understanding.
1,000% of Hull Healed per Minute
So, basically, for those 20s, you're getting healing equal to your entire HP once every 6s. So if you have 150k HP, that's 150k HP healed over 6s, or 25k HPS for those 20s.
While playing around on Tribble with the upcoming changes, I've been experimenting with different combinations of Primary and Secondary specializations. One thing that has stood out is that, for the Tier 4 "clicky" abilities, Lone Wolf seems to have an incredibly short active period (10 sec) combined with a very long cooldown (5 min). For what Lone Wolf does (Team Placate, Defense Bonus, and Shield Redistribution), this seems out of line compared to the other Primary Tier 4 abilities. For example:
I think the 3 above abilities have well-balanced cooldowns considering their respective powers. I would like to propose that Lone Wolf is somehow adjusted to make it more in-line with the others. By either adding something to the ability or increasing the defense/shield re-distribution duration to make the 5 min cooldown seem justified or by lowering the cooldown (in the range of 2 to 3 minutes).
does boost moral even work last time i tested it, it didn't
yep it works. I use it all the time on Holodeck. It was great in the Breach Event in the small power core room when someone popped the ??? cores. There are some debuffs that have no cleanse like the stingers in the Japori system so Boost Moral won't work there, but it clears almost all other debuffs.
Stunning effect is probably the way to go to keep it from being too much like boarding parties, thematically it makes sense since a explosion from inside a ship would certainly shock the crew as well as the the Inertial dampeners.
Granted it was a long time ago but it didn't seem to work against, debuffs that impede movement.
good changes:
-buff of engineer captain(miracle worker his other captain abilties)
-Nerf of FAW
-Maco shield can work woth plasmonic leech
-balancing many OP consoles(leech)
-Beam Overload is buffed(usefull now)
-nerf of plasmaproc
etc
What i find bad that the plasmonic leech noc longer and that [Console - Universal - Regenerative Integrity Field] is only 10 seconds and its heal abiltity too much nerfed.The wprst is that the science captain who played at exotic abiltites is now too much nerfed and nearly useless.It must be a golden middle way for the science exotic captain.
The Devs should take this combo out:
Probability Manipulation(50 % crith) and attack pattern alpha.....
They could change the 50% crith that is only work for exotoc particle abilties.
That is why today is possible to make 200+ k dps.....
All Pets need to be buffed(runabouts,voth fighter to frigates)...not only the frigates
If their aim/goal is to create balance or fun - they need to take a hard look also at starship traits, rep traits, Universal consoles, heck even some lock box ships. They need to doa complete re-start ala wipe.
Ontop of that, it doesn't make sense to activate most abilities within a matter of a couple seconds because it's just not possible to physically say those things to each and every bridge officer in a bridge environment. This thinking naturally leads to how player personal attack patterns are formed, where their preferred choice of grouped up skills can be activated with a single command. Attack patterns can give each class of captain a more prominently tactical experience, where their assessment of situations warrants multiple ability activations.
Can we sort out reputation traits aswell? Newer ones like space heals found in the lukari tree are very powerful compared to the traits of the older trees. The older traits were fun because the game wasn't about stacking numbers on numbers and now it puts me off playing. I'm sick of grinding for the very next best thing. Why can't the new things brought out be of the same power as previously released abilities. That way, people get the opportunity to choose between powers, rather than simply going off what is the best heal or the best dmg increase. I can tell you that alot of us don't want to use lukari or iconian or whatever else when we enjoyed using more Dyson and omega traits because our time feels wasted with grinding. It's all new new new with no respect for the old, nostalgic powers or old enemies that made actual trek fans want to play. For example, I thought the borg could adapt to new threats, where are their assimilated set enhancements and 4pc warp core?
Please find a way to make this work for everyone devs.
So, just in order to satisfy some whim of console player(s), let's dumb game totally down for PC players who have been playing for much longer time? How about no. *holds back a comment about console peas... players*.
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