Basically did it to be different, but let me tell you it's FUN!
Honestly, it's so easy to stack crit now, that the sci ultimate is basically trash.
A special ability that temporarily overrides your crit hit and sets it to exactly 50%? (Not +50% mind you, but sets it TO 50%.)
Not very useful when it's possible to have a build with a native crit chance pretty close to or even above that. Without even really reaching. SRO+JHV boffs, the Colony deflector, maybe a couple of those Discovery rep Bellum consoles, endeavour bonuses, traits....
I mean, I've seen non-Romulan builds that hit 52% (on stats screen) without even doing anything really strange... and Romulans can get an additional 3%-4% or so that isn't accessible to anyone else (via Science and Engineer BOFFs with SRO). At that point, the "ultimate ability" would actually penalize you.
Not to mention the sub-optimal skills layout you'd have to do to get it.
Think that's bad take a look at the eng ultimate.
I think it's obvious if all i cared about was dps I would've gone in a whole 'nother direction.
Basically did it to be different, but let me tell you it's FUN!
Honestly, it's so easy to stack crit now, that the sci ultimate is basically trash.
A special ability that temporarily overrides your crit hit and sets it to exactly 50%? (Not +50% mind you, but sets it TO 50%.)
Not very useful when it's possible to have a build with a native crit chance pretty close to or even above that. Without even really reaching. SRO+JHV boffs, the Colony deflector, maybe a couple of those Discovery rep Bellum consoles, endeavour bonuses, traits....
I mean, I've seen non-Romulan builds that hit 52% (on stats screen) without even doing anything really strange... and Romulans can get an additional 3%-4% or so that isn't accessible to anyone else (via Science and Engineer BOFFs with SRO). At that point, the "ultimate ability" would actually penalize you.
Not to mention the sub-optimal skills layout you'd have to do to get it.
Sounds like your definition of sub-optimal is based on dps. Been around way way too long to be enslaved by the pointless quest for more dps. If that is your "quest" more power to you. But you should be more open minded about playing the game and as Spock would say "there are always alternatives"
Basically did it to be different, but let me tell you it's FUN!
Honestly, it's so easy to stack crit now, that the sci ultimate is basically trash.
A special ability that temporarily overrides your crit hit and sets it to exactly 50%? (Not +50% mind you, but sets it TO 50%.)
Not very useful when it's possible to have a build with a native crit chance pretty close to or even above that. Without even really reaching. SRO+JHV boffs, the Colony deflector, maybe a couple of those Discovery rep Bellum consoles, endeavour bonuses, traits....
I mean, I've seen non-Romulan builds that hit 52% (on stats screen) without even doing anything really strange... and Romulans can get an additional 3%-4% or so that isn't accessible to anyone else (via Science and Engineer BOFFs with SRO). At that point, the "ultimate ability" would actually penalize you.
Not to mention the sub-optimal skills layout you'd have to do to get it.
Sounds like your definition of sub-optimal is based on dps. Been around way way too long to be enslaved by the pointless quest for more dps. If that is your "quest" more power to you. But you should be more open minded about playing the game and as Spock would say "there are always alternatives"
Not sure that's right. Westmetals has a point with the massive powercreep over the years 50% crit chance is nothing anymore. I am an Engineer flying a Carrier focused around pets not energy or torpedos and even I sit at well over 32% crit outside ESD and with 1 trait that goes to 47% and 2 traits that goes to 52% and that's with no consoles, no deflector, no engine that boost crit which is what most people run with.
I am all for people playing for how they want to play. But its kind of true that Ultimates that set your crit chance to 50% tend to penalize the player. Powercreep has made it so Ultimates are no longer good and are something you use for fun. There is nothing wrong with using Ultimates but its correct to say that in todays state of the game they are suboptimal.
Basically did it to be different, but let me tell you it's FUN!
Honestly, it's so easy to stack crit now, that the sci ultimate is basically trash.
A special ability that temporarily overrides your crit hit and sets it to exactly 50%? (Not +50% mind you, but sets it TO 50%.)
Not very useful when it's possible to have a build with a native crit chance pretty close to or even above that. Without even really reaching. SRO+JHV boffs, the Colony deflector, maybe a couple of those Discovery rep Bellum consoles, endeavour bonuses, traits....
I mean, I've seen non-Romulan builds that hit 52% (on stats screen) without even doing anything really strange... and Romulans can get an additional 3%-4% or so that isn't accessible to anyone else (via Science and Engineer BOFFs with SRO). At that point, the "ultimate ability" would actually penalize you.
Not to mention the sub-optimal skills layout you'd have to do to get it.
Sounds like your definition of sub-optimal is based on dps. Been around way way too long to be enslaved by the pointless quest for more dps. If that is your "quest" more power to you. But you should be more open minded about playing the game and as Spock would say "there are always alternatives"
Re: "sub-optimal"....
Even my exotic damage science builds only have 9 to 12 skill points in science. (all three in Control, EPG, and Long Range Targeting, and in some cases Drain.)
Explain to me where it's at all profitable to sink an additional 12-15-18 points into science skills in order to qualify for the ultimate, instead of using at least some of those in tac or eng skills. And I'm not just talking DPS, I'm talking survivability too. (Actually, I don't even parse.)
Shields. Borg don't even scratch them on advanced content. There's your survivability. Probably the main reason I listen to youtubers with a skeptical gaze.
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
That's exactly what it is a drain build. Only saying try out different things and without trying you'll only have someone's word as whether it works or not. Bottom line is it's fun and different even if it's "sub-optimal"
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
I made a shield build once, i tested it on a Elite Borg mission solo, it took 3 borg spheres firing the shield drain to kill my shields.
AKA, Beard of borg. Owner of the title "Should have left"
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
I made a shield build once, i tested it on a Elite Borg mission solo, it took 3 borg spheres firing the shield drain to kill my shields.
In how many seconds? 3? 4?
The initial ship group on normal Infected (cube and 4 spheres) can strip shields off of every ship I've thrown at them in ~2 seconds, no matter how much drain resist that captain has. Drain resist/expertise is simply ineffectual against enemy shield drains. The only thing that helps is having *more* shields. But, to be clear, *OTHER* drain effects are notably diminished by drain resist/expertise. Tyken rifts, for example, have almost no effect beyond damage with even a modest amount of drain resist/expertise.
The full leangth of the ablity, and i dod not go for shield rejust, just shield cap and regen. If i remember right, I got to 45K shields and 10K regen, the borg got close with my shields getting red, then they regen back
AKA, Beard of borg. Owner of the title "Should have left"
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
I made a shield build once, i tested it on a Elite Borg mission solo, it took 3 borg spheres firing the shield drain to kill my shields.
In how many seconds? 3? 4?
The initial ship group on normal Infected (cube and 4 spheres) can strip shields off of every ship I've thrown at them in ~2 seconds, no matter how much drain resist that captain has. Drain resist/expertise is simply ineffectual against enemy shield drains. The only thing that helps is having *more* shields. But, to be clear, *OTHER* drain effects are notably diminished by drain resist/expertise. Tyken rifts, for example, have almost no effect beyond damage with even a modest amount of drain resist/expertise.
For many years shields where useless but I am not sure they are anymore. Recently I started migrating back to using shields as I have no problems keeping them up and its very easy to keep them at 75% resistance and have a pretty good tank. I am not a drain build and I don't recall losing shields in Borg runs. I don't see how Borg are striping your shields off in 2 to 3 seconds. in ISE the first row of Borg cubes should be well dead before you lose shields.
Saying this Hull tanking is still stronger then shield tanking. Its just I have migrate back to a part shield tank as its pretty useful and strong for little investment. I have gone from 100% hull to hybrid hull/shield.
EDIT: Just ran quick ISA as was short of time. My shields where up 99% of the time. Twice they hit 10% for a split second before bouncing back up and once they went down for 1 second then bounced back up. If I am reading this right as I am rushing, I took a grand total of 7,209 hull damage while shields took around 1million damage. This isn't even a proper shield tank.
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
I made a shield build once, i tested it on a Elite Borg mission solo, it took 3 borg spheres firing the shield drain to kill my shields.
In how many seconds? 3? 4?
The initial ship group on normal Infected (cube and 4 spheres) can strip shields off of every ship I've thrown at them in ~2 seconds, no matter how much drain resist that captain has. Drain resist/expertise is simply ineffectual against enemy shield drains. The only thing that helps is having *more* shields. But, to be clear, *OTHER* drain effects are notably diminished by drain resist/expertise. Tyken rifts, for example, have almost no effect beyond damage with even a modest amount of drain resist/expertise.
For many years shields where useless but I am not sure they are anymore. Recently I started migrating back to using shields as I have no problems keeping them up and its very easy to keep them at 75% resistance and have a pretty good tank. I am not a drain build and I don't recall losing shields in Borg runs. I don't see how Borg are striping your shields off in 2 to 3 seconds. in ISE the first row of Borg cubes should be well dead before you lose shields.
Saying this Hull tanking is still stronger then shield tanking. Its just I have migrate back to a part shield tank as its pretty useful and strong for little investment. I have gone from 100% hull to hybrid hull/shield.
EDIT: Just ran quick ISA as was short of time. My shields where up 99% of the time. Twice they hit 10% for a split second before bouncing back up and once they went down for 1 second then bounced back up. If I am reading this right as I am rushing, I took a grand total of 7,209 hull damage while shields took around 1million damage. This isn't even a proper shield tank.
Cool.
A couple questions...
do you take points into shield regen and hardness in your skill tree?
was a shield heal being used?
any consoles related to shields being used? (i.e. Valdore, Voth Power Subcore)
While I do agree with corin on the Borg's ability to strip shields off anything... on the other hand extreme drain resist and shield restoration might mitigate their shield drain?
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
I made a shield build once, i tested it on a Elite Borg mission solo, it took 3 borg spheres firing the shield drain to kill my shields.
In how many seconds? 3? 4?
The initial ship group on normal Infected (cube and 4 spheres) can strip shields off of every ship I've thrown at them in ~2 seconds, no matter how much drain resist that captain has. Drain resist/expertise is simply ineffectual against enemy shield drains. The only thing that helps is having *more* shields. But, to be clear, *OTHER* drain effects are notably diminished by drain resist/expertise. Tyken rifts, for example, have almost no effect beyond damage with even a modest amount of drain resist/expertise.
For many years shields where useless but I am not sure they are anymore. Recently I started migrating back to using shields as I have no problems keeping them up and its very easy to keep them at 75% resistance and have a pretty good tank. I am not a drain build and I don't recall losing shields in Borg runs. I don't see how Borg are striping your shields off in 2 to 3 seconds. in ISE the first row of Borg cubes should be well dead before you lose shields.
Saying this Hull tanking is still stronger then shield tanking. Its just I have migrate back to a part shield tank as its pretty useful and strong for little investment. I have gone from 100% hull to hybrid hull/shield.
EDIT: Just ran quick ISA as was short of time. My shields where up 99% of the time. Twice they hit 10% for a split second before bouncing back up and once they went down for 1 second then bounced back up. If I am reading this right as I am rushing, I took a grand total of 7,209 hull damage while shields took around 1million damage. This isn't even a proper shield tank.
Cool.
A couple questions...
do you take points into shield regen and hardness in your skill tree?
was a shield heal being used?
any consoles related to shields being used? (i.e. Valdore, Voth Power Subcore)
what kind of ship were you flying?
Currently in a Fleet Jem'Hadar Vanguard Support Carrier with a full pet build. No points in shield restoration, max points in shield cap, shield passive regen and hardness. Normally I run Bridge Officer cooldown with EPtS3 and RSP3 or EPtS2 and RSP2 with fabrication doff to extend RSP.
For this Carrier I have RSP2 only, no EPtS. Shield power 91. My base shield resistance is 73%. For some reason CLR shows me at 92% and 98% shield resistance for almost the entire ISA isn't that meant to be impossible? My guess is RSP is showing at 90% shield resistance? If I have EPtS3 I don't use a Voth Powercore. In this case due to no RPtS I do have a Voth power core plus the pet fits into the build theme. No healing bridge officer powers unless you count it RSP. Core healing done via x4 Protomatter matrix Infusers and 1 Hull Image Refactors, I tend to take 2 or 3 projectile powers to trigger the infusers. The idea is to use Protomatter and then drop all Bridge Officer healing to free up slots for DPS Bridge Officer powers. x4 Protomatter might be more then is needed, the reason I have so many is these trigger the trait Interference Drones which boosts the DPS of all my Hangar pets and battleship summons.
Lastly I have a Regen Crystal (REG mod) shield which automatically redistributes shield strength. I am not sure this is the best choice as I am still experimenting with shield tanking. I have a feeling the higher cap shields are going to work out better due to the Protomatter infusers.
Not using this at the moment trait Automated Shield Alignment which gives 25% shields per defeated foe plus a damage bonus on missing shields. Also not in use I sometimes play around with Xenotech Resilience modules which give 17.5% hull resistance, 39.4 shield hardness and 5% Specialist Bridge officer powers. As its +skill there are no diminishing returns on shield resistance with these consoles plus 2 or 3 of them gives a pretty decent hull resilience. Using everything mentioned in this post is if anything over tanking. I am trying to scale back the tank while still being good enough. At this point I am not sure what the most efficient combo is.
The nice thing about this build is I can completely ignore healing. I tend to just cycle though the Tactical powers as needed which in turn triggers the shield and hull healing and then the shield auto redistribute.
EDIT: While I do have shield regen maxed I am not sure this is really needed. This is more a legacy skill from when I was building a100% passive native regen build. I believe a high cap shield with cap mods, dropping shield regen skill will work better then my current setup.
My generalist builds gets shield stripped pretty quickly, especially from spheres using Tachyon Beam as they pretty much have a 360 variant. But as I build to face just about anything, especially if I'm using the full Kobali set.
My generalist builds gets shield stripped pretty quickly, especially from spheres using Tachyon Beam as they pretty much have a 360 variant. But as I build to face just about anything, especially if I'm using the full Kobali set.
I think it's not just that they have a 360 degree tachyon beam.
They also use it against you even if they don't have selected you as their main target. At least that's what I've noticed quite a few times (though it could be of course that they switched targets between them targeting me and me clicking that same sphere).
[4:46] [Combat {self}] Your Haymaker deals 23337 (9049) Physical Damage(Critical) to Spawnmother
Well... For most Tachyon Beam using ships, its limited to the forward arc because of the placement of the Deflector. Spheres don't have a visible deflector and it seems like you can't get out of their "forward" arc to break the Tachyon Beam by maneuvering. That is why I feel like they have a 360 Tachyon Beam. Because they have no Deflector hardpoint to limit the usable arc.
Comments
Think that's bad take a look at the eng ultimate.
I think it's obvious if all i cared about was dps I would've gone in a whole 'nother direction.
Sounds like your definition of sub-optimal is based on dps. Been around way way too long to be enslaved by the pointless quest for more dps. If that is your "quest" more power to you. But you should be more open minded about playing the game and as Spock would say "there are always alternatives"
I am all for people playing for how they want to play. But its kind of true that Ultimates that set your crit chance to 50% tend to penalize the player. Powercreep has made it so Ultimates are no longer good and are something you use for fun. There is nothing wrong with using Ultimates but its correct to say that in todays state of the game they are suboptimal.
Shields. Borg don't even scratch them on advanced content. There's your survivability. Probably the main reason I listen to youtubers with a skeptical gaze.
As I have NEVER specialized like that I can't say for certain if that would help. I'm more of a balanced, generalist build kind of player. Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
That's exactly what it is a drain build. Only saying try out different things and without trying you'll only have someone's word as whether it works or not. Bottom line is it's fun and different even if it's "sub-optimal"
I made a shield build once, i tested it on a Elite Borg mission solo, it took 3 borg spheres firing the shield drain to kill my shields.
The full leangth of the ablity, and i dod not go for shield rejust, just shield cap and regen. If i remember right, I got to 45K shields and 10K regen, the borg got close with my shields getting red, then they regen back
Saying this Hull tanking is still stronger then shield tanking. Its just I have migrate back to a part shield tank as its pretty useful and strong for little investment. I have gone from 100% hull to hybrid hull/shield.
EDIT: Just ran quick ISA as was short of time. My shields where up 99% of the time. Twice they hit 10% for a split second before bouncing back up and once they went down for 1 second then bounced back up. If I am reading this right as I am rushing, I took a grand total of 7,209 hull damage while shields took around 1million damage. This isn't even a proper shield tank.
A couple questions...
Currently in a Fleet Jem'Hadar Vanguard Support Carrier with a full pet build. No points in shield restoration, max points in shield cap, shield passive regen and hardness. Normally I run Bridge Officer cooldown with EPtS3 and RSP3 or EPtS2 and RSP2 with fabrication doff to extend RSP.
For this Carrier I have RSP2 only, no EPtS. Shield power 91. My base shield resistance is 73%. For some reason CLR shows me at 92% and 98% shield resistance for almost the entire ISA isn't that meant to be impossible? My guess is RSP is showing at 90% shield resistance? If I have EPtS3 I don't use a Voth Powercore. In this case due to no RPtS I do have a Voth power core plus the pet fits into the build theme. No healing bridge officer powers unless you count it RSP. Core healing done via x4 Protomatter matrix Infusers and 1 Hull Image Refactors, I tend to take 2 or 3 projectile powers to trigger the infusers. The idea is to use Protomatter and then drop all Bridge Officer healing to free up slots for DPS Bridge Officer powers. x4 Protomatter might be more then is needed, the reason I have so many is these trigger the trait Interference Drones which boosts the DPS of all my Hangar pets and battleship summons.
Lastly I have a Regen Crystal (REG mod) shield which automatically redistributes shield strength. I am not sure this is the best choice as I am still experimenting with shield tanking. I have a feeling the higher cap shields are going to work out better due to the Protomatter infusers.
Not using this at the moment trait Automated Shield Alignment which gives 25% shields per defeated foe plus a damage bonus on missing shields. Also not in use I sometimes play around with Xenotech Resilience modules which give 17.5% hull resistance, 39.4 shield hardness and 5% Specialist Bridge officer powers. As its +skill there are no diminishing returns on shield resistance with these consoles plus 2 or 3 of them gives a pretty decent hull resilience. Using everything mentioned in this post is if anything over tanking. I am trying to scale back the tank while still being good enough. At this point I am not sure what the most efficient combo is.
The nice thing about this build is I can completely ignore healing. I tend to just cycle though the Tactical powers as needed which in turn triggers the shield and hull healing and then the shield auto redistribute.
EDIT: While I do have shield regen maxed I am not sure this is really needed. This is more a legacy skill from when I was building a100% passive native regen build. I believe a high cap shield with cap mods, dropping shield regen skill will work better then my current setup.
Bio-Neural Gel Pack + Temporal Disentanglement don't fit my pet build but synergize well into this setup for other builds. https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Krenim_Temporal_Manipulation#Console_-_Science_-_Temporal_Disentanglement_Suite
My generalist builds gets shield stripped pretty quickly, especially from spheres using Tachyon Beam as they pretty much have a 360 variant. But as I build to face just about anything, especially if I'm using the full Kobali set.
I think it's not just that they have a 360 degree tachyon beam.
They also use it against you even if they don't have selected you as their main target. At least that's what I've noticed quite a few times (though it could be of course that they switched targets between them targeting me and me clicking that same sphere).
[3/25 10:41][Combat (Self)]Your Haymaker deals 26187 (10692) Physical Damage(Critical) to Orinoco.