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Another help returning player play catch up thread
ggsimmonds84
Member Posts: 63 Arc User
Just returned to the game after a roughly two year absence. I left shortly before the launch of New Dawn.
Got a few questions if you don't mind
1. Is the game still a race to DPS? Is tanking viable yet?
2. When I left the standard cruiser build was a AP beam boat. Any changes there?
3. Any meta strategies that have been removed/nerfed?
I don't remember specifics but my build was the one where you could have barely any downtime between Boff abilities. Can't remember anything more than that, or even how to work it. And I remember there was some console that was basically a requirement, is that still so (leech it was?)Seems some change in the game caused all my ability bars to reset, so I was getting noobed pretty badly in some fleet actions.
4. What is the new trend of the year/month?
5. Any big change from late 2015 I need to be aware of?
Got a few questions if you don't mind
1. Is the game still a race to DPS? Is tanking viable yet?
2. When I left the standard cruiser build was a AP beam boat. Any changes there?
3. Any meta strategies that have been removed/nerfed?
I don't remember specifics but my build was the one where you could have barely any downtime between Boff abilities. Can't remember anything more than that, or even how to work it. And I remember there was some console that was basically a requirement, is that still so (leech it was?)Seems some change in the game caused all my ability bars to reset, so I was getting noobed pretty badly in some fleet actions.
4. What is the new trend of the year/month?
5. Any big change from late 2015 I need to be aware of?
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Comments
Now, on to your questions..
The game will always have a focus on DPS, but it's been curtailed somewhat with a sweeping series of nerfs. Tanking is viable enough, but ultimately, taking out bad guys before they can kill you is the preferred method. Players used to be able to 'tank' by generating threat and pulling attention to them while using Feedback Pulse to return damage. That tactic has been nerfed into the ground so if anything, Tanking took just as big of a hit as DPS.
Energy type is a non issue, most people agree that you should use whatever type you like. Beams still reign supreme, though Cannons have closed the gap considerably. The 'gold standard' is currently Disruptors.
A lot has been nerfed. Embassy Plasma consoles are now useless garbage that can be thrown away. Plasmonic Leech has been nerfed to give less power, but is still a standard console. Science console slots are used primarily for Universal consoles in DPS builds. Anything that boosts overall damage or critical hit/damage are preferred for these slots. Feedback Pulse is no longer a standard, it's been nerfed as well. Threat builds are no longer the meta, Drake Builds and even some Aux2Bat builds are common place these days.
There have been some under the hood adjustments made to cooldown times, mostly the nerf was to the tactical ability that massively reduced cooldown times. It's still possible to get abilities to global using duplicate abilities and things like Krenim Bridge Officers and a few traits. This really depends on your build.
Pretty much same as when you left here.
See number 4.
Hope it helps a little, if you need help tweaking your build please feel free to post it and I'm sure we can get you all fixed up.
The game itself does not set much of a dps benchmark - you can hit a benchmark of ~20K dps using a T5 ship with VR Mk XII items available from episodes - which will see you through all normal and most advanced content.
I don't know what the dps threshold for elite content is, but if that is the content you like to play in, then you already know your answer.
When I stopped paying it was one of those sudden things where one day I didn't feel like playing, or the next day, day after that and so on. And I was in the middle of a crafting marathon so everything was a mess. Spent some time trying to make heads or tales of things, then decided to start a new character. Saw they added a new fed start so I gave that a try, then Daniels shows up and I immediately hit "log out" lol
Ran a few fleet actions and my ship felt far more squishy than I remembered. Though it probably didn't help that I forgot what all my boff abilities were for. I had an aux2bat build and I'm looking at my bar wondering why there are 2 of the same abilities.
Kinda sucks about the plasma consoles though. Pretty sure I was running all fleet plasma consoles at tac. Can't remember how much that set me back, but I imagine it was a good bit.
Anyway, I'm one of those guys where I do run a DPS parser and combatlog, but I don't fret over getting it as high as possible. I just don't want to hold teammates back and be a liability. I'd say 70% of the time I was near the top in DPS, then I'd be grouped with one of the real DPS kings and my numbers would pale in comparison.
Finally, as far as tanking goes, I want to tank in the end game content to let the escorts be the heavy hitters. But tanking on elite means you are not helping, everyone needs to be DPS. I didn't like that about the game, and it sucks that it looks to be the same.
Well, the good news is that Aux2Bat is actually more viable then it was pre-nerf.
Before S13, I honestly would advise anyone running Aux2Bat on any ship to change their build. Post S13, I actually run A2B on a couple of my alts and it works quite well. Cryptic made changes to the Leech console which was used by.. well.. everyone.. to manage power. The Leech had become quite affordable on the exchange and was easily in reach of all players making power problems a thing of the past. Now that the changes have hit, the Leach still works great, but doesn't keep power levels as high as it used to. Because of this, Aux2Bat can be a very low cost alternative for those that don't want to fork over for consoles and traits that are commonly used to mitigate this issue.
I'm not sure what ship you're running, but in the current climate, Aux2Bat is best when used on ships that are heavy on Engineering and limited on tactical slots. If you're running a ship that has a more balanced bridge officer layout then a drake build using Power to Weapons and Power to Shields might be right for you. These builds are also a great balance of offense and defense. If you need any help with a specific ship, please feel free to ask, there are many on this board that are happy to help when they can.
Well then I expect you to be disappointed. The day the PvE queue mechanism lets you choose a role is the day tanking "might" matter. Tanking just cannot matter until maps are built to require it. You'd need boss mobs that do a *lot* of single target damage. Tanks themselves would need more "all aggro on me *now*" type skills to recover aggro in emergencies, and loosing aggro must be an emergency.
Even so, a tank, without healers, cannot work, so heal/support oriented builds would need access to a skill cycle that means they're capable of constant healing - with burst heals available on top of that.
Basically, a boss mob in a heals/dps/tank type encounter would have to have the life - and mitigation - to survive a few minutes of sustained "max" dps, during which time it should do enough AOE damage to kill all dps 2-5 times over, and the tank (its preferred target for all big damage) about 10-20x over.
Remember that tanking is not about having a lot of life and shields or self survivability: its actually about having enough burst damage resistance and mitigation that healing the tank is *efficient* enough for support/heals to keep alive.
These are the kind of things that MMOs that have a viable tanking model have. And STO has almost none of this.
U.S.S. Buteo Regalis - Brigid Multi-Mission Surveillance Explorer build
R.R.W. Ri Maajon - Khopesh Tactical Dreadnought Warbird build
My Youtube channel containing STO videos.
Not really. Cannons are now more viable for ships that have the turn but for cruisers it's still beams. I've never paid much attention to the trivial details like what sub-variety of energy damage is "in" at any given moment.
Embassy consoles are one that really took the hit and are now more or less waste of space. Leech isn't a requirement anymore either, but I guess still decent. Lots of nerfs this year but those are the big ones.
Whining about the spring of nerfs.
No, not really. Game's still easy as pie.
Anything else can be done in pretty basic ships and gear if you use some common sense.
DPS is still the way to kill things but you do t need to chase it unless you want to. Plenty of viable builds that'll do 30-50k with a bit of sensible piloting.
The only major change has been to a few items like embassy plasma consoles that are now considered useless, though ymmv, there are maybe a few uses for them on specialised builds.
Leech is now a bit less poweful but sill a good console.
Weapons wise cannons are now up to a similar level to beams and can compete with them quite well.
Torps are still tough to excel at but can be quite good with some commitment.
Aux2Bat was very effective for me back then. My ship is a T5-U Odyssey. I had two copies of Aux2Bat, along with 3 purple technicians. Beam fire at will was OP back then, and this setup along with the AP fleet tac consoles made sure I did good DPS. Never used plasmonic leech oddly enough. And I had enough engineering slots left to give myself good survivability. Basically pop into middle of mob, hit EPS power transfer/red matter capacitor, a2b, fire at will. Once I get everyone's attention, trigger RSP followed by power to shields. Hit engineering team if necessary, and when I got in a bind, evasive maneuvers/rock and roll and miracle worker got me out of it.
It is no surprise that I cannot remember my full ships stats from back then, but I want to say they changed something because I'm fairly confident my crit hit chance was higher before. Can't remember the name of them (not plasma), but I use the fleet consoles that boost AP crit chance/severity
They were. I already have command maxed and my secondary was pilot. If I recall, I left shortly after intelligence was announced but maybe still on tribble. Wait scratch that, I got a hierarchy intelligence science officer. It was the strategist specialization that wasn't on holodec yet.
Cool, glad it's coming back to you. Just remember that clicking Aux2Bat shortens the recharge time of any ability on cooldown, that's what those 3 Purple Technicians do. Try to do your full rotation first, and then pop A2B last so you get the recharge on everything on cooldown. Otherwise, sounds like you're getting your legs back under you. If you need a little boost to your survival, look for a Fabrication Engineer on the exchange that increases the duration of Reverse Shield Polarity. The purple ones are pretty pricy but the Blue ones are only about 2 less seconds and cost almost nothing.
Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.
After my full rotation is when the second a2b gets popped. The first is more of a get my 3 power levels high. And if I am going from mob to mob chances are something is still on cooldown at the onset of each engagement (sucks when it is evasive maneuvers).
Regarding the duration of RSP, it is not that high on my priority, and I may even already have such an officer. But if I don't I'm not going to buy one anytime soon. That uh R&D marathon I did prior to leaving set me back on EC a good bit (cost of tech upgrades I think).
And of course my genius self made a huge error. I had some mkIV epic AP crithx3 dam/pen arrays in my inventory. The original plan was to sell them, that was the purpose of my marathon. But when I was sorting my inventory I equipped them. Bound to account.
I spent all that money to craft them with the intention of selling them, only to forget that 2 years later and equip them. I already had the same damn thing equipped!!
Luckily I had several coalition disrupter manuals in my bank. If I recall at that time they were only going for ~750k. Well something changed cause I sold 5 of them at 3 mil each. By no means is that a lot of EC, but it helps.