Large Kit Overboosters I carry lots of these in my inventory and spam them continuously. They're like using Aux2Bat or Photonic officer in space as they reduce the cooldown of kit module abilities so that they're available for use more often. The increased uptime results in far more damage and heals.
Festive Party Popper Used to blow bubbles to signify eager anticipation, delight, and satisfaction.
What seems to work using this setup is surrounding oneself in mines and then dragging the Borg onto them using the Gravity Containment Unit.
Anything that's left gets the Anchor of Gre'thor plus the Chain Conduit Capacitor as well as the Ambush Turrets.
Anything left on the outskirts will get hit with the mortar. With an active duty doff there's usually 3 mortars deployed.
Large kit overboosters vastly increase the uptime of all kit modules whether they are offensive or defensive.
A rifle or side arm is rarely used as kit modules are the primary source of damage for this engineer.
Large Kit Overboosters I carry lots of these in my inventory and spam them continuously. They're like using Aux2Bat or Photonic officer in space as they reduce the cooldown of kit module abilities so that they're available for use more often. The increased uptime results in far more damage and heals.
Festive Party Popper Used to blow bubbles to signify eager anticipation, delight, and satisfaction.
What seems to work using this setup is surrounding oneself in mines and then dragging the Borg onto them using the Gravity Containment Unit.
Anything that's left gets the Anchor of Gre'thor plus the Chain Conduit Capacitor as well as the Ambush Turrets.
Anything left on the outskirts will get hit with the mortar. With an active duty doff there's usually 3 mortars deployed.
Large kit overboosters vastly increase the uptime of all kit modules whether they are offensive or defensive.
A rifle or side arm is rarely used as kit modules are the primary source of damage for this engineer.
It can certainly work, but personally i think the ambush turrets perform poorly against the Borg due to being a rapid fire low damage turret to which the borg quickly adapt.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Large Kit Overboosters I carry lots of these in my inventory and spam them continuously. They're like using Aux2Bat or Photonic officer in space as they reduce the cooldown of kit module abilities so that they're available for use more often. The increased uptime results in far more damage and heals.
Festive Party Popper Used to blow bubbles to signify eager anticipation, delight, and satisfaction.
What seems to work using this setup is surrounding oneself in mines and then dragging the Borg onto them using the Gravity Containment Unit.
Anything that's left gets the Anchor of Gre'thor plus the Chain Conduit Capacitor as well as the Ambush Turrets.
Anything left on the outskirts will get hit with the mortar. With an active duty doff there's usually 3 mortars deployed.
Large kit overboosters vastly increase the uptime of all kit modules whether they are offensive or defensive.
A rifle or side arm is rarely used as kit modules are the primary source of damage for this engineer.
It can certainly work, but personally i think the ambush turrets perform poorly against the Borg due to being a rapid fire low damage turret to which the borg quickly adapt.
It could just be me but I feel it's the standard turrets that are fairly low damage (the regular craftable or fleet turrets) compared to some of the others.
I have seen multiple players use the standard turrets though and they seem to do a pretty good job when used en masse.
I'd characterize Ambush Turrets as high damage in part due to their quick cooldown. In conjunction with large kit overboosters their uptime seems pretty good.
I haven't had any issues with the Borg adapting to my kit module abilities.
I'm going to give your idea a try though as I'd forgotten about the Blastwave turret
Just set up a new laptop the day prior to the current event and eventually will use a parser to help with fine tuning things like this.
That turret is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.
360 degree shotgun range plasma damage
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Here's a parse from a very nice run done this evening. The team was excellent. Toon is a human engineer identically equipped per the post above but on an alt account. It's pretty cool being able to see what's going on with the various abilities. I haven't parsed in quite a while.
My experiences have been similar to Annemarie30's... It was fun and somewhat challenging the first few times, but after that, it's gotten ridiculous. I also run a Bolean Fed Engineer and have the Kuumarke set and lots of bells and whistles, but as the group as a whole starts to falter around level 8, we wind up being locked in the respawn room... Not literally, but as the borg then follow and converge on the team as they respawn, it's respawn > die > respawn > die...
Chatgoers only had flames when I inquired, and only served to tell me I was an idiot for not being willing to adjust and learn from the TFO; to, in fact, adapt. My point is not to make the TFO easier, but there are mechanics that make the TFO completely unpleasant. I know I'm going to be int he minority and there will only be those who insist that the problem lies with me... And they may be right. But I will not be playing this particular TFO ever again as it has lost its fun.
Regardless of how lousy others will say I am at ground battles, I believe the fault lies somewhere around the idea of the respawn room and the converging borg. Don't make the borg easier to defeat, fix the mechanic and make it possible to actually respawn.
Anyway... My two energy credits...
CRM
"Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure science." - Edwin Hubble
My experiences have been similar to Annemarie30's... It was fun and somewhat challenging the first few times, but after that, it's gotten ridiculous. I also run a Bolean Fed Engineer and have the Kuumarke set and lots of bells and whistles, but as the group as a whole starts to falter around level 8, we wind up being locked in the respawn room... Not literally, but as the borg then follow and converge on the team as they respawn, it's respawn > die > respawn > die...
Chatgoers only had flames when I inquired, and only served to tell me I was an idiot for not being willing to adjust and learn from the TFO; to, in fact, adapt. My point is not to make the TFO easier, but there are mechanics that make the TFO completely unpleasant. I know I'm going to be int he minority and there will only be those who insist that the problem lies with me... And they may be right. But I will not be playing this particular TFO ever again as it has lost its fun.
Regardless of how lousy others will say I am at ground battles, I believe the fault lies somewhere around the idea of the respawn room and the converging borg. Don't make the borg easier to defeat, fix the mechanic and make it possible to actually respawn.
Anyway... My two energy credits...
CRM
I agree, as you might guess from my earlier posts in this topic.
"Fun when geared for elite TFOs" is not a good design for a normal difficulty event TFO that's open to level 10s. My suggestion of having multiple respawn zones and randomizing respawns would at least fix the "trapped together in the kill zone" spawn camping by the Borg in later rounds.
Saying "git gud" might be OK for advanced and elite TFOs, but normal is supposed to be more forgiving.
I just had a run in which circumstance led to multiple team respawns.
It seems that if players engage the borg while they're IN the respawn area then borg seem to eventually follow this increased threat generation right into the respawn area.
I can see how this sort of situation could create a bit of a quagmire for casual players.
What got us out of the loop was timing our respawns and the re-engagement of the borg. The threat then got transferred back to the main area where it belonged.
I thought this run was nicely challenging and somewhat refreshing.
Everything I did mattered. Working as a team mattered.
The respawn shenanigans added about 5 minutes to the queue's playtime..
But because it was so much fun it only felt like a minute or two
Did anyone notice that in the articles leading up to this TFO and event, the number of rounds you would have to complete kept changing from 7 to 12?
It's also interesting that the one accolade that we have from the new TFO so far is granted at round 7.
My guess is that the event version was originally planned at 7 rounds, the same as Sompek Arena, and perhaps tuned to present a reasonable challenge for most players up to that point - I believe the Borg adaptation warning appears at the end of round 6 as well, which would have meant a more challenging 'final round' if the length had stayed at 7 rounds.
But, for whatever reason, the length was changed to 12 rounds, and I am guessing again but it seems likely the difficulty was not adjusted to match - the final rounds certainly seem more like something I would have expected to see in the regular version of this TFO when it appears, ramping up towards pre-made team territory (aside from being followed into the respawn area).
My experiences have been similar to Annemarie30's... It was fun and somewhat challenging the first few times, but after that, it's gotten ridiculous. I also run a Bolean Fed Engineer and have the Kuumarke set and lots of bells and whistles, but as the group as a whole starts to falter around level 8, we wind up being locked in the respawn room... Not literally, but as the borg then follow and converge on the team as they respawn, it's respawn > die > respawn > die...
Chatgoers only had flames when I inquired, and only served to tell me I was an idiot for not being willing to adjust and learn from the TFO; to, in fact, adapt. My point is not to make the TFO easier, but there are mechanics that make the TFO completely unpleasant. I know I'm going to be int he minority and there will only be those who insist that the problem lies with me... And they may be right. But I will not be playing this particular TFO ever again as it has lost its fun.
Regardless of how lousy others will say I am at ground battles, I believe the fault lies somewhere around the idea of the respawn room and the converging borg. Don't make the borg easier to defeat, fix the mechanic and make it possible to actually respawn.
Anyway... My two energy credits...
CRM
Honestly, from what I've seen, it's also partly about bad timing.
I've been in a few instances where everyone got killed. Instead of co-ordinating the respawning, people just try to run through solo if they're the first to respawn. And instead of taking cover somewhere, they run straight ahead so they can get shot at from all directions. xD
I mean, part of success in this short mission comes from some good old common sense.
As for stuff like the heavy lobi store weapons and Kumaarke set: the problem with this type of stuff is that many players seem to have become over-reliant on them.
An old-fashioned split beam rifle (perhaps even one from the Omega reputation as they * should * keep doing damage after adaptation) might not look as impressive, but combined with some exposing powers they can take out enemies much faster.
Also, apparently fire damage is supposed to make those nanite mounds more vulnerable. At least that's what they said in the latest episode.
Lastly, picking the right targets helps. Don't focus fire on the big HP sponge when there are many more enemies around it that deal much more damage, combined. Especially cause those other targets can be taken down much faster. It's basically the same as with Heavy tactical and elite tactical drones. They both deal serious damage, but the heavy one is taken down much faster. It makes no sense to first target the elite one then.
Kill the low-HP, low-resistance targets (or ones that heal the others). That reduces incoming fire. Then shoot from all directions at that nanite stuff.
Most of the times we're not used to having to pick targets in some order (hence why you can, for example, see people engaging Citadel dreadnoughts before wasting the entire group around them - something that's bound to fail without either enormous tanking potential, someone distracting that group - or high DPS). In cases like these, it can make a difference though.
As for stuff like the heavy lobi store weapons and Kumaarke set: the problem with this type of stuff is that many players seem to have become over-reliant on them.
An old-fashioned split beam rifle (perhaps even one from the Omega reputation as they * should * keep doing damage after adaptation) might not look as impressive, but combined with some exposing powers they can take out enemies much faster.
Also, apparently fire damage is supposed to make those nanite mounds more vulnerable. At least that's what they said in the latest episode.
Lastly, picking the right targets helps. Don't focus fire on the big HP sponge when there are many more enemies around it that deal much more damage, combined. Especially cause those other targets can be taken down much faster. It's basically the same as with Heavy tactical and elite tactical drones. They both deal serious damage, but the heavy one is taken down much faster. It makes no sense to first target the elite one then.
Kill the low-HP, low-resistance targets (or ones that heal the others). That reduces incoming fire. Then shoot from all directions at that nanite stuff.
Most of the times we're not used to having to pick targets in some order (hence why you can, for example, see people engaging Citadel dreadnoughts before wasting the entire group around them - something that's bound to fail without either enormous tanking potential, someone distracting that group - or high DPS). In cases like these, it can make a difference though.
Also, stay mobile and only stop briefly to deploy any deployables then keep moving. I tend to use shoot and scoot as a method for rapidly changing location fast.
If you have the Voth Mech suit, that is also useful as is the Red Angel armour. I usually save the mech suit for the last few rounds against the more difficult stuff.
My deployables are ambush turrets, Baul Obelisks, an Elachi Walker and the Borg rewards from the Mirror Borg and last Borg event rewards as well.
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
I think years of playing event queues where one's actions have little effect on the outcome has rendered a portion of the player base less able to deal with things when the gameplay leaves that narrow script.
It certainly has affected my gameplay.
Thanks @fleetcaptain5#1134 for posting so many well thought out common sense tips.
As for stuff like the heavy lobi store weapons and Kumaarke set: the problem with this type of stuff is that many players seem to have become over-reliant on them.
An old-fashioned split beam rifle (perhaps even one from the Omega reputation as they * should * keep doing damage after adaptation) might not look as impressive, but combined with some exposing powers they can take out enemies much faster.
Also, apparently fire damage is supposed to make those nanite mounds more vulnerable. At least that's what they said in the latest episode.
Lastly, picking the right targets helps. Don't focus fire on the big HP sponge when there are many more enemies around it that deal much more damage, combined. Especially cause those other targets can be taken down much faster. It's basically the same as with Heavy tactical and elite tactical drones. They both deal serious damage, but the heavy one is taken down much faster. It makes no sense to first target the elite one then.
Kill the low-HP, low-resistance targets (or ones that heal the others). That reduces incoming fire. Then shoot from all directions at that nanite stuff.
Most of the times we're not used to having to pick targets in some order (hence why you can, for example, see people engaging Citadel dreadnoughts before wasting the entire group around them - something that's bound to fail without either enormous tanking potential, someone distracting that group - or high DPS). In cases like these, it can make a difference though.
Also, stay mobile and only stop briefly to deploy any deployables then keep moving. I tend to use shoot and scoot as a method for rapidly changing location fast.
If you have the Voth Mech suit, that is also useful as is the Red Angel armour. I usually save the mech suit for the last few rounds against the more difficult stuff.
My deployables are ambush turrets, Baul Obelisks, an Elachi Walker and the Borg rewards from the Mirror Borg and last Borg event rewards as well.
Both the Voth Mech and Red Angel are powerful, but they are an ill fit to my often mobile play style so i rarely use them.
Same for the kuumaarke's set, aside from the bright pink color, it is not a set i find personally enjoyable.
On my engineer i tend to stick to either Romulan Operative set, Imperial Assault Ground Set or Omega Force.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
It's hard to beat the Na'kuhl Temporal Operative personal shield and secondary weapon with Burnham's CQC Armor as a highly survivable (and very powerful stat wise) all around ground set.
No need to invoke mechs or angels with stats like this
There's also a great selection of storyline, event, specialization, and lockbox modules available (many of which are universal) that can be used to spice things up..
ok in my latest we got whipped good again. seem like they have assimilated elite gorn, and an assimilates tzenkethi. either or it's ok, but we had 2 gorn and a tzen. I'm thinking I may want to sacrifice a kit slot for one of those transporter kits, pop to the other side of the arena and THEN raise heck (and threat)at least that should draw them away from the team
Not entirely sure if that sort of kit module would be worthwhile. It's up to you of course to tune your character as you see fit. Trying different things is always good.
Consider Universal Kit Module - Mudd's Time Device to help with staying alive AND to reduce kit module cooldown time. Also try the active reputation trait Defiance (on a hot key).
What's really needed is for players to do some more damage. This ain't gonna happen until folks start using their kit modules more.
I looked at a parse from a run done yesterday and it pretty well confirmed that all four teammates basically fired their (unbuffed) weapon and deployed a combat pet. This is good for about 100 dps.
There is no finger pointing on my part as I used to do the exact same thing as someone who primarily played for the role playing 🤷
Science Captains - no real need to fire your weapon (unless you want to) as it's your kit modules that will do far more damage if you use them. Try Paradox Bomb plus Cold Fusion Flash
Engineering Captains - ditto (build is above in this thread)
Tactical Captains - yes, fire away but first.. buff, buff, buff. Keep your weapon hot by rotating your Captain abilities and buffing kit modules so that they are in use as often as they're available. Buff before lobbing a grenade. Big buff ! before your attack (i.e. Lunge).
I think the Borg have started using some kind of orbital strike during phases 11 and 12. A circle appears, and a few moments later a vertical beam strikes and one-shots you (or me, anyway, at lvl 65 with Coalition armor and Sompek shield). This is especially annoying when accompanied by the black webbing that holds you in place for the blast.
I think the Borg have started using some kind of orbital strike during phases 11 and 12. A circle appears, and a few moments later a vertical beam strikes and one-shots you (or me, anyway, at lvl 65 with Coalition armor and Sompek shield). This is especially annoying when accompanied by the black webbing that holds you in place for the blast.
At 11-12 often the Assimilated Tzenketti comes into play which has a mortar/bombardment type of weapon
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
Large Kit Overboosters I carry lots of these in my inventory and spam them continuously. They're like using Aux2Bat or Photonic officer in space as they reduce the cooldown of kit module abilities so that they're available for use more often. The increased uptime results in far more damage and heals.
Festive Party Popper Used to blow bubbles to signify eager anticipation, delight, and satisfaction.
What seems to work using this setup is surrounding oneself in mines and then dragging the Borg onto them using the Gravity Containment Unit.
Anything that's left gets the Anchor of Gre'thor plus the Chain Conduit Capacitor as well as the Ambush Turrets.
Anything left on the outskirts will get hit with the mortar. With an active duty doff there's usually 3 mortars deployed.
Large kit overboosters vastly increase the uptime of all kit modules whether they are offensive or defensive.
A rifle or side arm is rarely used as kit modules are the primary source of damage for this engineer.
Large Kit Overboosters I carry lots of these in my inventory and spam them continuously. They're like using Aux2Bat or Photonic officer in space as they reduce the cooldown of kit module abilities so that they're available for use more often. The increased uptime results in far more damage and heals.
Festive Party Popper Used to blow bubbles to signify eager anticipation, delight, and satisfaction.
What seems to work using this setup is surrounding oneself in mines and then dragging the Borg onto them using the Gravity Containment Unit.
Anything that's left gets the Anchor of Gre'thor plus the Chain Conduit Capacitor as well as the Ambush Turrets.
Anything left on the outskirts will get hit with the mortar. With an active duty doff there's usually 3 mortars deployed.
Large kit overboosters vastly increase the uptime of all kit modules whether they are offensive or defensive.
A rifle or side arm is rarely used as kit modules are the primary source of damage for this engineer.
I gave your suggestion a try (the Plasma Blastwave Turret) and so far it seems to work a bit better than the Ambush Turrets on this map.
Thanks for the recommendation. It's a keeper
It works best on small maps.
At greater distance the Ambush Turret may be preferable.
This program, though reasonably normal at times, seems to have a strong affinity to classes belonging to the Cat 2.0 program. Questerius 2.7 will break down on occasion, resulting in garbage and nonsense messages whenever it occurs. Usually a hard reboot or pulling the plug solves the problem when that happens.
this morning i stayed primarily with the phaser cannon. in the later rounds even after a fresh re-sequence the weapon was doing next to no damage. i switched to a different energy weapon, and it did normal damage. I also only used half the kit powers, saving some for the last 2 rounds.
I think the Borg have started using some kind of orbital strike during phases 11 and 12. A circle appears, and a few moments later a vertical beam strikes and one-shots you (or me, anyway, at lvl 65 with Coalition armor and Sompek shield). This is especially annoying when accompanied by the black webbing that holds you in place for the blast.
I saw this too.
But for me it didn't take a few moments. I saw the circle, moved away, got shot at and had to take cover and I could only move back to where that circle still was, like ten seconds later. When I returned there, it finally hit, just in time to kill me.
It was basically lightning waiting for me to get under that one tree, it refused to strike until I got there.
I also believe that some of the animations simply aren't showing properly. Perhaps because there are so many animations in a small room.
I got killed without knowing what it was, so I checked the little piece of combat log you can select after being killed. Apparently it was a heavy tac drone with some 'sweep' ability. Which sounds like the full auto rifle-type of attack, the one they've had for years.
But I'm almost 100% sure I didn't see that being fired at my character.
Some of the new attacks are hardly visible. While others seem to be drawn out by the overload of visual effects.
A couple of years ago, the decision was made to have friendly (i.e., player-cast) abilities have different colours than the ones used by enemies.
With the red nanite stuff (and possibly a few others I'm forgetting), that distinction has been lost. I think this is an example of oversight. In my opinion, the player kit module from the previous episode should get a different colour and any new enemy abilities should remain visibly distinct from player-used ones.
A couple of years ago, the decision was made to have friendly (i.e., player-cast) abilities have different colours than the ones used by enemies.
With the red nanite stuff (and possibly a few others I'm forgetting), that distinction has been lost. I think this is an example of oversight. In my opinion, the player kit module from the previous episode should get a different colour and any new enemy abilities should remain visibly distinct from player-used ones.
Good point since there is no friendly fire in STO. If the effect color is the same there's no way to tell if a puddle or incoming mortar round is deadly or safe.
0
rattler2Member, Star Trek Online ModeratorPosts: 58,582Community Moderator
Good point since there is no friendly fire in STO. If the effect color is the same there's no way to tell if a puddle or incoming mortar round is deadly or safe.
Far as I am aware friendly mortars don't say "I'm landing here, get clear". Most player based things don't have a warning. I do think that nanite swarm might need a tweak since the player one and the enemy one look pretty much the same, complete with a circle under it.
Comments
Kit modules from left to right..
Universal Kit Module - Chain Conduit Capacitor
Engineering Kit Module - Anchor of Gre'thor
Engineering Kit Module - Cryo Mine Barrier
Universal Kit Module - Ambush Turret Fabrication
Universal Kit Module - Gravity Containment Unit
Engineering Kit Module - Neutronic Mortar
Captain's gear..
Na'kuhl Temporal Operative Personal Shield and secondary weapon plus Burnham's CQC Armor
Consumables..
Large Kit Overboosters I carry lots of these in my inventory and spam them continuously. They're like using Aux2Bat or Photonic officer in space as they reduce the cooldown of kit module abilities so that they're available for use more often. The increased uptime results in far more damage and heals.
Festive Party Popper Used to blow bubbles to signify eager anticipation, delight, and satisfaction.
What seems to work using this setup is surrounding oneself in mines and then dragging the Borg onto them using the Gravity Containment Unit.
Anything that's left gets the Anchor of Gre'thor plus the Chain Conduit Capacitor as well as the Ambush Turrets.
Anything left on the outskirts will get hit with the mortar. With an active duty doff there's usually 3 mortars deployed.
Large kit overboosters vastly increase the uptime of all kit modules whether they are offensive or defensive.
A rifle or side arm is rarely used as kit modules are the primary source of damage for this engineer.
It can certainly work, but personally i think the ambush turrets perform poorly against the Borg due to being a rapid fire low damage turret to which the borg quickly adapt.
This turret may be more useful against the Borg.
https://stowiki.net/wiki/Universal_Kit_Module_-_Plasma_Blastwave_Turret
It could just be me but I feel it's the standard turrets that are fairly low damage (the regular craftable or fleet turrets) compared to some of the others.
I have seen multiple players use the standard turrets though and they seem to do a pretty good job when used en masse.
I'd characterize Ambush Turrets as high damage in part due to their quick cooldown. In conjunction with large kit overboosters their uptime seems pretty good.
I haven't had any issues with the Borg adapting to my kit module abilities.
I'm going to give your idea a try though as I'd forgotten about the Blastwave turret
Just set up a new laptop the day prior to the current event and eventually will use a parser to help with fine tuning things like this.
360 degree shotgun range plasma damage
3 pc power from kuumaarke's set.
This is the parser I'm trying out..
STO Combat Log Analyzer
https://github.com/AnotherNathan/STO_CombatLogAnalyzer/releases/tag/v1.3.0
Chatgoers only had flames when I inquired, and only served to tell me I was an idiot for not being willing to adjust and learn from the TFO; to, in fact, adapt. My point is not to make the TFO easier, but there are mechanics that make the TFO completely unpleasant. I know I'm going to be int he minority and there will only be those who insist that the problem lies with me... And they may be right. But I will not be playing this particular TFO ever again as it has lost its fun.
Regardless of how lousy others will say I am at ground battles, I believe the fault lies somewhere around the idea of the respawn room and the converging borg. Don't make the borg easier to defeat, fix the mechanic and make it possible to actually respawn.
Anyway... My two energy credits...
CRM
I agree, as you might guess from my earlier posts in this topic.
"Fun when geared for elite TFOs" is not a good design for a normal difficulty event TFO that's open to level 10s. My suggestion of having multiple respawn zones and randomizing respawns would at least fix the "trapped together in the kill zone" spawn camping by the Borg in later rounds.
Saying "git gud" might be OK for advanced and elite TFOs, but normal is supposed to be more forgiving.
It seems that if players engage the borg while they're IN the respawn area then borg seem to eventually follow this increased threat generation right into the respawn area.
I can see how this sort of situation could create a bit of a quagmire for casual players.
What got us out of the loop was timing our respawns and the re-engagement of the borg. The threat then got transferred back to the main area where it belonged.
I thought this run was nicely challenging and somewhat refreshing.
Everything I did mattered. Working as a team mattered.
The respawn shenanigans added about 5 minutes to the queue's playtime..
But because it was so much fun it only felt like a minute or two
It's also interesting that the one accolade that we have from the new TFO so far is granted at round 7.
My guess is that the event version was originally planned at 7 rounds, the same as Sompek Arena, and perhaps tuned to present a reasonable challenge for most players up to that point - I believe the Borg adaptation warning appears at the end of round 6 as well, which would have meant a more challenging 'final round' if the length had stayed at 7 rounds.
But, for whatever reason, the length was changed to 12 rounds, and I am guessing again but it seems likely the difficulty was not adjusted to match - the final rounds certainly seem more like something I would have expected to see in the regular version of this TFO when it appears, ramping up towards pre-made team territory (aside from being followed into the respawn area).
Thoughts?
It doesn't end when everyone's dead.
I just came from one where the entire team got caught by surprise. We all died at round 11 or 12, but the mission didn't end until we completed it.
Honestly, from what I've seen, it's also partly about bad timing.
I've been in a few instances where everyone got killed. Instead of co-ordinating the respawning, people just try to run through solo if they're the first to respawn. And instead of taking cover somewhere, they run straight ahead so they can get shot at from all directions. xD
I mean, part of success in this short mission comes from some good old common sense.
An old-fashioned split beam rifle (perhaps even one from the Omega reputation as they * should * keep doing damage after adaptation) might not look as impressive, but combined with some exposing powers they can take out enemies much faster.
Also, apparently fire damage is supposed to make those nanite mounds more vulnerable. At least that's what they said in the latest episode.
Lastly, picking the right targets helps. Don't focus fire on the big HP sponge when there are many more enemies around it that deal much more damage, combined. Especially cause those other targets can be taken down much faster. It's basically the same as with Heavy tactical and elite tactical drones. They both deal serious damage, but the heavy one is taken down much faster. It makes no sense to first target the elite one then.
Kill the low-HP, low-resistance targets (or ones that heal the others). That reduces incoming fire. Then shoot from all directions at that nanite stuff.
Most of the times we're not used to having to pick targets in some order (hence why you can, for example, see people engaging Citadel dreadnoughts before wasting the entire group around them - something that's bound to fail without either enormous tanking potential, someone distracting that group - or high DPS). In cases like these, it can make a difference though.
Also, stay mobile and only stop briefly to deploy any deployables then keep moving. I tend to use shoot and scoot as a method for rapidly changing location fast.
If you have the Voth Mech suit, that is also useful as is the Red Angel armour. I usually save the mech suit for the last few rounds against the more difficult stuff.
My deployables are ambush turrets, Baul Obelisks, an Elachi Walker and the Borg rewards from the Mirror Borg and last Borg event rewards as well.
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
It certainly has affected my gameplay.
Thanks @fleetcaptain5#1134 for posting so many well thought out common sense tips.
Many of them are simple things we tend to forget.
Both the Voth Mech and Red Angel are powerful, but they are an ill fit to my often mobile play style so i rarely use them.
Same for the kuumaarke's set, aside from the bright pink color, it is not a set i find personally enjoyable.
On my engineer i tend to stick to either Romulan Operative set, Imperial Assault Ground Set or Omega Force.
It's hard to beat the Na'kuhl Temporal Operative personal shield and secondary weapon with Burnham's CQC Armor as a highly survivable (and very powerful stat wise) all around ground set.
No need to invoke mechs or angels with stats like this
The Furtive Perseverance (Romulan Operative) set is also very nice.
These are basic storyline and reputation rewards.. nothing to do with being geared for elite TFO's.
Kit modules are also important..
All 3 professions have access to a selection of basic craftable kit modules that should do just fine in this scenario.
Engineer: Mines, Transphasic Bomb, Turret, Mortar, Medical Generator, Support Drone
Science: Exothermic Induction Field, Hyperonic Radiation, Sonic Pulse, Electro-Gravitic Field, Nanite Health Monitor, Medical Tricorder, Vascular Regenerator
Tactical: Ambush, Battle Strategies, Photon Grenade, Lunge
There's also a great selection of storyline, event, specialization, and lockbox modules available (many of which are universal) that can be used to spice things up..
https://stowiki.net/wiki/Bridge_officer_and_kit_abilities
Edit: added Exothermic Induction Field to science kit modules
Consider Universal Kit Module - Mudd's Time Device to help with staying alive AND to reduce kit module cooldown time. Also try the active reputation trait Defiance (on a hot key).
What's really needed is for players to do some more damage. This ain't gonna happen until folks start using their kit modules more.
I looked at a parse from a run done yesterday and it pretty well confirmed that all four teammates basically fired their (unbuffed) weapon and deployed a combat pet. This is good for about 100 dps.
There is no finger pointing on my part as I used to do the exact same thing as someone who primarily played for the role playing 🤷
Science Captains - no real need to fire your weapon (unless you want to) as it's your kit modules that will do far more damage if you use them. Try Paradox Bomb plus Cold Fusion Flash
Engineering Captains - ditto (build is above in this thread)
Tactical Captains - yes, fire away but first.. buff, buff, buff. Keep your weapon hot by rotating your Captain abilities and buffing kit modules so that they are in use as often as they're available. Buff before lobbing a grenade. Big buff ! before your attack (i.e. Lunge).
Tactical Kit Modules that buff damage: Battle Strategies, Ambush, Trajectory Bending, Motivation
Use your Captain abilities as well.. Target Optics, Fire On My Mark, Tactical Initiative, Strike Team.
One thing I recently did was to bind a key to sequentially fire off (execute) a row (full tray). Unfortunately I'm about 10 years late to the party..
Now I stand in one spot, tap the selected key to fire off kit modules and large kit overboosters, and then collect my daily 6 minutes later.
Is there a facepalm emoticon ?
At 11-12 often the Assimilated Tzenketti comes into play which has a mortar/bombardment type of weapon
I gave your suggestion a try (the Plasma Blastwave Turret) and so far it seems to work a bit better than the Ambush Turrets on this map.
Thanks for the recommendation. It's a keeper
It works best on small maps.
At greater distance the Ambush Turret may be preferable.
I saw this too.
But for me it didn't take a few moments. I saw the circle, moved away, got shot at and had to take cover and I could only move back to where that circle still was, like ten seconds later. When I returned there, it finally hit, just in time to kill me.
It was basically lightning waiting for me to get under that one tree, it refused to strike until I got there.
I got killed without knowing what it was, so I checked the little piece of combat log you can select after being killed. Apparently it was a heavy tac drone with some 'sweep' ability. Which sounds like the full auto rifle-type of attack, the one they've had for years.
But I'm almost 100% sure I didn't see that being fired at my character.
Some of the new attacks are hardly visible. While others seem to be drawn out by the overload of visual effects.
A couple of years ago, the decision was made to have friendly (i.e., player-cast) abilities have different colours than the ones used by enemies.
With the red nanite stuff (and possibly a few others I'm forgetting), that distinction has been lost. I think this is an example of oversight. In my opinion, the player kit module from the previous episode should get a different colour and any new enemy abilities should remain visibly distinct from player-used ones.
Good point since there is no friendly fire in STO. If the effect color is the same there's no way to tell if a puddle or incoming mortar round is deadly or safe.
Far as I am aware friendly mortars don't say "I'm landing here, get clear". Most player based things don't have a warning. I do think that nanite swarm might need a tweak since the player one and the enemy one look pretty much the same, complete with a circle under it.