test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Could non-phaser/disruptors ship types get a buff?

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
As it is, phasers and disruptors are the weapons of choice in pvp and pve, respectively. They are the lowest tiered types, yet their procs are superior to all higher tier variants.

Phasers in pvp have a chance to "throw" opposition off their game; no shields means torps away, no engines means no defense, no weapons gives a chance to "think", no aux means minimal healing.

Disruptors apply a long 10% debuff against a not all too bright A.I.

Now the other types....

Plasma applies a pitiful,non-stacking (in damage) dot to the target..

Tetryon has a chance of doing a small amount of shield damage

I haven't played with polaron but hear mixed things about them.

Anti-proton...The extra crit sev doesn't do much, unless close to your target.

I would love to see plasma dots stack in damage and be refreshed on each proc, Tetryon either get an increase in proc chance or proc itself getting a boost in damage.

I'm not sure about polaron, so this is a shot in the dark...make polaron a debuff that saps away the current highest power level, to maximum of 50.

And anti-protons...I'd say a change from crit sev to crit percent (say 20 crit sev to 2 crit percent), or an increase in the crit sev.

A bandaid solution could be to make all the energy types in the same row

Made the thread due to it seeming like the lowest tiered energy type are more powerful then the rest.

P.S. Quantums/photons are the king/queen of torpedoes, they need to get looked at really bad.

Trans needs a debuff that allows more bleed through, plasma needs the dot buffed, trics seem ok as a flavor weapon and chroniton are fine as is.
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    On the flip side, I'm happy with the weapons as they are.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Except for disruptors and phasers all the others are bit weak I had a nice destroyer outfited with first teryon later as I grow Polaron and now I finaly have Anti Proton . But even with rapid fire have to do few rounds before I bring a Cube on his knees and I switched just to try to Disruptors and 1 fly round the cube is down.
    So there is a truth in what he is saying .....

    But if STO don't want to change a thing just Equip Disruptors there the best in all weapons even Ground weapons there the winner.

    Greetzzzzzzzz Jetal
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I agree with what you're saying, but I do think that you're underestimating some of the weapon types.

    Phasers and disruptors are indeed the most efficient energy weapons skill point wise, and their procs are fantastic. I'm not going to argue with that. It's been the truth ever since the skill system, which was initially meant to be "capless" had a hard cap slapdashed onto it just before launch. But lets not talk too much about that, lets look at the rest of the weapons

    Anti-Proton - You'd be surprised at how coveted that extra +20 magnitude to crit severity can be worth, it may not be much on it's own, but when combined with the extra 3 weapon buffs you get on a Very Rare weapon and suddenly it can become a devastating crit weapon.

    Tetryon - 4th best weapon behind phasers, disruptors and Anti-proton, but that doesn't make it bad... have a ship fully fitted out with cannons of any variety and turrets, combine them with C:SV or C:RF and suddenly you'll find yourself ripping through shields like no tomorrow, especially useful if I'm remembering this correctly, because the damage applies to all four facings (that might have changed, been a while since I equipped them). You are draining much more shield energy than just the shield facing you're currently attacking, leaving your opponents defenses much weaker if you're unable to lock back in that shield facing or they end up reinforcing it.

    Plasma - yeah, totally right on this one, the DoT either needs to stack or have a damage buff to make it worthwhile.

    Polaron - These weapons can and should be awesome, but they seem to suffer from a couple of fatal flaws, I don't believe that each proc stacks, and the power drain almost instantly starts recharging. Either make the procs stack with this one too, or add some sort of timer so it can't be immediately recharged.

    Torpedoes... Oh Torpedos... what shall we do with you?

    Quantums are most definitely kings or the torps. Fast and highly damaging, and a decent cooldown

    Photons may have less damage potential than Quantums, but they do have a much lower cooldown, Photons should always be considered for highly manoeuvrable ships like escorts, raptors and BoPs, sure, they wont get the same spike damage as with quantums, but thanks to having high manoeuvrability, you should be able to fire these off almost constantly, adding to your overall dps.

    Plasmas are rather nice torps, decent damage, decent cooldown and while the DoT isn't overly impressive, I do believe that these do stack. Add in the ability to launch a single HYT that hits for a huge spike of damage, and it's a decent weapon. Of course, the HYT version is slow and can be shot down, but clever usage means heavy damage for those people you end up hitting with it. However, be aware that the HYT is susceptible to lag based misfiring, wasting the torp and putting the launcher on cooldown as if it had done so. The only real improvements I'd suggest is that if I am wrong and the DoTs don't stack, make them do so, or increase the base damage of the DoT

    Transphasics are bad... bad! Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, BAD! Low damage and a long cooldown. The increased shield penetration is just not enough. These need a serious rethink IMO. Increase the base damage and increase the shield penetration and they may become useful...

    Chronitons are an interesting situational weapon... Sure, they suffer from the same problems as Transphasics, low damage and long cooldowns, but their proc ability can be pretty useful if you're willing to put up with the lack of DPS. 33% chance to lower your opponent's turn rate for a period of time. A good way to apply a little bit of control to a battlefield, makes it an excellent choice for a science ship who chooses to act in a debuff/crowd control role in PvP or in an STF.

    Tricobalts are pretty much the big boys on the block, horribly slow cooldown, automatically launches in a HYT form similar to the Plasma Torp, and hit for massive, massive damage. Good choice if you like big numbers and are rarely facing your opponent... But these also suffer from the misfire issue I mentioned with the Plasma torp. With the HUGE cooldown on these torps (and they even put normal torps on a 30s global cooldown) you will feel every single misfire.



    I really hope that Cryptic takes a look at weapons again. Some of the damage types do need a serious overhaul, even if the rest can be used competently.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Why would anyone be happy with the majority of weapons not being worth the extra skill points needed to use them? It should be obvious that the upper tier weapon types are vastly underused compared to phaser, disruptors, photons and quantums. Originally they were done this way with the idea that there would be no skill cap and people would spec into the other weapon types as they ran out of other things to put points into, but then they changed their design late in development without fixing the damage types. It's way past time to either put all the weapon types on the same skill point cost or to improve the upper tier weapon types. I recommend the former as we don't want one weapon to be the "must use" at the upper tier any more than we want phasers/disruptors to be de rigeur as they are now.

    Even if they fixed the skill point cost, I'd argue that the procs on most of the upper tier weapon types would still need a buff. Plasma procs, tetryon procs, polaron procs, transhphasic procs, chroniton damage, recharge times, all would need to be improved to make them as vaulable as phaser/disruptors/photons/quantums are now.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Shakkar wrote: »
    Why would anyone be happy with the majority of weapons not being worth the extra skill points needed to use them? It should be obvious that the upper tier weapon types are vastly underused compared to phaser, disruptors, photons and quantums. Originally they were done this way with the idea that there would be no skill cap and people would spec into the other weapon types as they ran out of other things to put points into, but then they changed their design late in development without fixing the damage types. It's way past time to either put all the weapon types on the same skill point cost or to improve the upper tier weapon types. I recommend the former as we don't want one weapon to be the "must use" at the upper tier any more than we want phasers/disruptors to be de rigeur as they are now.

    Even if they fixed the skill point cost, I'd argue that the procs on most of the upper tier weapon types would still need a buff. Plasma procs, tetryon procs, polaron procs, transhphasic procs, chroniton damage, recharge times, all would need to be improved to make them as vaulable as phaser/disruptors/photons/quantums are now.

    This. I completely agree with this post.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Antiprotons can be worth it in some cases.

    I miss Tetryon though, I used it at lower tiers when its proc actually did some good.
    Fun times.

    The procs could certainly use a re balance....

    Torpedos too for that matter. Raise your hand, honestly, who here uses anything besides photon/Quantum/Tric?

    (Special devices like cluster torp dont count)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I thought that tetryon weapon proc equated to that of a of mark turret shot to all facings. What happens is interesting, but coupling the low damage of the proc plus being strictly a shield restricted, is seriously depressing.

    And about the point about anti-protons...all other damage types get modifiers as well, the extra 20 sev isn't all that much, especially when attacking at a distance vs. Face to face 0.0 km
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Acceleron wrote:
    I thought that tetryon weapon proc equated to that of a of mark turret shot to all facings. What happens is interesting, but coupling the low damage of the proc plus being strictly a shield restricted, is seriously depressing.

    It's not a weapon type that I'd recommend when just using beams, but when using cannons and turrets along side C:RF and C:SV, tetryons will rip though shields like nothing else, and unlike the phaser Proc those shields stay down unless the opponent does something about it. While you are right that it's a shield only effect, it once again comes into it's own when used in a group situation. Combine it with Tachyon beam and charged particle burst and you're gonna be a shield stripping monster.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I think the weapons balance on the energy side is fine, they just need to share the same skill point cost as phaser/disruptor. (would also do wonders for the game's economy)

    Torps need some rehtinking on some fronts, Only ones used ar quantums, photons and tri cobalt, rest is just subpar.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Raise your hand, honestly, who here uses anything besides photon/Quantum/Tric?

    *Raises hand*

    Admitedly on most of my characters its quantums and photons on a few, but I use chriniton on my Captain vorcha and plan to stick with them for the admiral version. One launcher at each end, dual heavy and two single cannons up front, I use the chroniton proc effect when it works to help keep targets in line with my cannons. Plus I think chroniton are the coolest looking torps, I mean who doesn't like shooting a rainbow at people. :p I also haven't bothered putting skill points into them.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The skill system as a whole is pretty broken. Bonuses normalize at and after Tier 3, but costs continue to ramp up. Can't really add increased bonuses because that will definitely unbalance things. Can't really reduce later costs because the entire levelling system is based off of points spent at varying ranks. No matter how you try to fix things you'll just break it more.

    No matter what you do you run into a brick wall. The whole skill system needs a reboot. :(
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The whole skill system needs a reboot. :(

    Aye, pretty much...
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The major bump in skill points cost without any bump in strength is the worst part of it IMO. My detailed thoughts about it are in my sig.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    The question is, how to balance a higher level weapon versus the loss of exactly one captain or admiral level skill.

    For example: A level 9 weapon performance (or some other top tier science/eng/tac skill) with level 9 phasers should roughly equal a level 9 polaron weapon without the weapon performance skill. Otherwise, you make the polaron skill a must-have rather than an alternative.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Personally I think if I am spending 200 points a skill level then I should get regular damage, If I am spending 500 points a skill level I should be doing far more damage. I would just lower the cost of all damage types to 200 each for skill levels but keep the rank requirements.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Weapon types do need a buff but Cryptic can't simply make the higher skill point costing ones stronger because this destroys balance. They should all cost the same amount of skill points, and the procs should be buffed. If you don't buff the procs, Dis and Phasers remain the best in game wpn types.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    Victory275 wrote: »
    Weapon types do need a buff but Cryptic can't simply make the higher skill point costing ones stronger because this destroys balance. They should all cost the same amount of skill points, and the procs should be buffed. If you don't buff the procs, Dis and Phasers remain the best in game wpn types.

    Ya...the thread is about buffing the procs
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    i think the procs need a bit an overhawl, all of them should have much more nasty side effects.

    Procs

    Phaser- 10% chance to disable subsystem for 5 seconds. The duration of the proc stacks consecutively. it should be limited to one system at a time though, all other systems get 'emergency dampeners' against the proc for 10 seconds. if your shields are disabled and in that 5 seconds you got hit with the proc to disable engines it wouldn't do any thing. otherwise it would basically be impossible to tank against multiple phaser users. but if you got hit with another shield disable proc, shields would remain disabled for another 5 seconds. but there would be like a 1.25% chance of that happening

    Disruptor- 10% chance for target to take 10% more damage for 5 seconds. The duration of the proc stacks consecutively, but the proc chance goes down 1% every time the proc occurs when the target is already suffering from it.

    Plasma- 10% chance to start a plasma fire that deals 50% of the initial weapon damage over 5 seconds. Proc can stack unlimited times. that seems a bit more realistic, and would work well at high levels too.

    Tetryon- 10% chance to negate 100 weapon energy for 5 seconds. The duration of the proc stacks consecutively. source- "Bombardment with tetryons can render directed-energy weapons inoperative. Jadzia Dax utilized tetryons to disable the weapons of The Albino's troops on Secarus IV in 2370. (DS9: "Blood Oath")"

    Polaron- 10% chance to do 50% more shield bleed
    source- ever watch deep space nine?!

    Antiproton- additional 10% critical severity. since every antiproton weapon ive seen is very rare purple, it doesn't seem to need more than that. dual heavy antiproton cannons are available with 70% critical severity!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited March 2011
    I agree. There is a reason the only weapons people use in pvp are phasers/disruptors and antiproton. Tetryon weapons suck. The shield proc is useless. I used it for months with all kinds of different skills and it was a complete waste of time. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if they purposefully suck so that we have to spend money on respecs, but I guess that's a bit out there. Plasma and polaron arealso useless at higher levels. Trust me, I had to respec out of both of them. This needs to be addressed.
Sign In or Register to comment.