beam escorts better?

[Archived Post]

I am an engineer/escort and I have a friend who couldnt beat me before he put dbb on his escort in conjunction with FAW3.

Since the dbb arc is narrow, even in pvp once you are facing your target or you set it up right its easier to get all strikes on one target, thereby increasing the damage out put of the power a lot. It's actually more powerful to have FAW3 with 4 dbb than using dhc's. since faw is what 15 second cool down?

whats the thoughts on this? clearly it upped his damage so much that our 1vs1 now instead of taking a few minutes where I normally win, he wins in under 1 minute or 1 minute 30 seconds.

I also saw an SOB raptor recently running DBB too and he was doing incredible damage, so are cannons now useless in the face of DBB's with FAW3?

edit did some testing on this. Using mark 11 uncommons, only 3 phaser relay tacticals and FAW2, not even 3. and thats the only phaser array power i had, i didnt take out my torpedo powers or my cannon rapid fire powers... damage potential is immense. IMMENSE!

Skill up time = 15 seconds, and down time = 30 seconds. so basically can be ON every 50% of the time?

Sure the damage potential of cannons with CRF is awesome... etc etc... but in terms of arc etc,, and the massive output of damage using FAW on one targetin front of you with DBB's outweighs CRF.

CRF has less up time too.

No wonder the more elite escort/raptor fliers are going this route. Question is was the use of DBB with FAW supposed to have these results?

Your welcome to test yourself and critique.

[Archived Post]

FaW is op'd against a single target. If your buddy uses FaW i recommend spamming mines

[Archived Post]

FaW is op'd against a single target. If your buddy uses FaW i recommend spamming mines

using DBB and making sure one target is in front of you especially with the current nice up time of this skill ensures that you USUALLY only have one target in front of you at a time as opposed to multiple ones.

I call unintended and over powered, reason? Anything that does more damage and easier at that than the use of cannons on escorts cannot be working as intended. People forget that one of the 'specialties' of escorts is it is the only type of ship out of cruisers/science that can use cannons weapons, which goes in line with their maneuverability and ability to keep people in arc and making them have the teeth they should have as opposed to cruisers..........now that whole 'bonus' is rather useless when you get more out of DBBs.

[Archived Post]

Not as easy as you think. You are getting the shaft in 1v1, now ask him to try it in a full 5v5 match. If you don't leave your team to chase him down, he won't be able to single target you with it. It's nothing new, players have been using it for a good long while now. It's only OP if you are dumb enough to let him single target you out. Otherwise it's only useful against carriers and mine spam.

[Archived Post]

i used it in a team, a pug, thats where i got my favored results.

the narrowness of the arc means theres not much i have to do to make sure theres only one target there, sometimes there isnt, but with the up time of the skill, i get alot of chances. its also very instant damage, no travel time of multiple bolts of cannons.

[Archived Post]

i used it in a team, a pug, thats where i got my favored results.

the narrowness of the arc means theres not much i have to do to make sure theres only one target there, sometimes there isnt, but with the up time of the skill, i get alot of chances. its also very instant damage, no travel time of multiple bolts of cannons.

The *only* problem I see with FaW is the fact that it ignores targets behind you and to the left of you when you can get your Dual Beams focused within the firing arc of your ship. It would work as intended if it forced you to fire on *all* targets within range, then adjusted the damage output according to all targets in range.

For an example, if you have a single target in the front of your ship within the Dual Beam Firing Arc, and you have two ships off to the side and one ship off to the aft, then the damage should be divided among all four ships, not ignore them and fire only on the target in front of you. The damage should be divided by each ship within the 10K range, not just one target.

This way, people can not use it in a crowded situation and gain single target damage from this. At the same time, you would get the same damage as you get now, if you decide to run and some ship decided to leave the safty of his team to chase you down. Then and only then should you be allowed to get the full benifit of having the full damage potential of FaW against a single target. If two ships follow you, then that damage should be divided by a certain percentage by two ships, instead of one.

I think that would bring the ability within perfect balance. It would still be useful as hell but bring it in line with balance when several targets are within the 10K Range, not just within your firing arcs.

[Archived Post]

FaW is definitely not working as intended in my opinion. I know plenty of FaW users who will disagree and this discussion has been going on for some time. Its pretty damn easy to separate a target from the group using TBR so the argument of it not being that effective due to the difficulty of getting a single target in the arc is moot. Running beams right now offers more BoFF options/abilities, higher potential for single target damage, huge advantage in any 1v1 vs a non FaW build, ability to run APO3 or APB3 plus FaW3....obviously can't do that with cannons. My list of "complaints" regarding FaW is pretty long but I'm sure this is enough to get the flames going.

[Archived Post]

FaW is definitely not working as intended in my opinion. I know plenty of FaW users who will disagree and this discussion has been going on for some time. Its pretty damn easy to separate a target from the group using TBR so the argument of it not being that effective due to the difficulty of getting a single target in the arc is moot. Running beams right now offers more BoFF options/abilities, higher potential for single target damage, huge advantage in any 1v1 vs a non FaW build, ability to run APO3 or APB3 plus FaW3....obviously can't do that with cannons. My list of "complaints" regarding FaW is pretty long but I'm sure this is enough to get the flames going.

Read my post just above yours, and I think we could agree that this would be the way FaW should work.

[Archived Post]

FaW is definitely not working as intended in my opinion. I know plenty of FaW users who will disagree and this discussion has been going on for some time. Its pretty damn easy to separate a target from the group using TBR so the argument of it not being that effective due to the difficulty of getting a single target in the arc is moot.

I've been very vocal about this in the past, but I do wholeheartedly agree that the only way to use the 4DBB + FAW build is when you couple it with repulsors. In an escort this means you are giving away that all important lt. sci slot and gimping your survivability though. The ship that can really pull it off is the BoP (the high turn rate also helps the BoP to play with his firing arc), and that's what I use. Of course, TBR only becomes available every 45sec, and itself can be quite hard to use especially against small fast ships.

Running beams right now offers more BoFF options/abilities, higher potential for single target damage, huge advantage in any 1v1 vs a non FaW build, ability to run APO3 or APB3 plus FaW3....obviously can't do that with cannons. My list of "complaints" regarding FaW is pretty long but I'm sure this is enough to get the flames going.

FAW3 + 4DBB offers more damage than CRF2 + 4DHC, but means that you can't equip turrets in the FAW boat (well, you can, but you actually lower DPS thanks to power drain mechanics). Stick turrets in the back of a CRF2 boat and you do very similar damage (slightly higher at close range, with more falloff the further off you get) but *always* hits the same target. CSV2 does more AOE damage than FAW and can deliver stunning damage with enough EPS consoles to mitigate the multi-target drain mechanic. Notice here I am using CRF/CSV 2 and not 3 because it is the level equivalent of FAW 3.

FAW seems artificially stronger becuase FAW boats tend to run all beams in front, or all beams and a torp. Cannon boats almost always run torps, and usually run a DBB as well for BO. So of course if you compare my FAW3 + 4DBB to someone else's CRF2/3 with two DHCs, 1 DBB, and a torp FAW is going to look OP.

FAW is very low skill point investment for the amount of damage it does. That damage is inferior to other types of damage because of the AOE mechanic, but there are ways to mitigate that (eg. TBR) but the 'quality' of my damage will always be worse than the 'quality' of your damage blackjack even if we get around the same numbers on the scoreboard. The main reason I run FAW + 4DBB isn't for the damage (although in the right situation I can get loads of it), but because as a BoP I have a lot of other things to spec into which the low investment cost of FAW lets me do.

[Archived Post]

in a 1v1 fight, FAW beats pretty much anything else. In a team however, it is far less efficient. Staying together is one way to completely ruin you damage output. Just having 2 targets makes you deal less damage to whoever you are focusing on than if you ran with unbuffed beams.

Also there is scramble sensors... If you are hit with that while running FAW, you basically have to run away. You can not stop firing, and will target friend and enemy alike.

I'm hoping that the occational FAW escort will make the cruisers start having Acetone Field at hand for matches where one may show up :)

[Archived Post]

how does aceton cover it?

[Archived Post]

I'm hoping that the occational FAW escort will make the cruisers start having Acetone Field at hand for matches where one may show up :)

Unfortunately, Aceton Field is fart oo easily countered with Hazard Emitters.

Speaking of FaW, I find it to be quite well balanced. Simply carring a copy of Aux to Dampeners and/or APO will counter the repulsors method of singling out targets.

[Archived Post]

I'm hoping that the occational FAW escort will make the cruisers start having Acetone Field at hand for matches where one may show up :)

To take a page from the immortal troll-thing Beagles:

lol, acetone field.

[Archived Post]

To take a page from the immortal troll-thing Beagles:

lol, acetone field.

You heard it here first, folks. Acetone Field will be the Next OPed, FoTM ability that all Cruisers will have. NERF ACETONE!

[Archived Post]

Unfortunately, Aceton Field is fart oo easily countered with Hazard Emitters.



Hehe. Fart.

[Archived Post]

A quick list of my issues with FaW:

1. Against a single target it easily does more damage then a similar escort running a cannon build.

2. I don't agree that any AoE attack should inherently do more damage against a single target then against multiple.

3. There is no adverse "consequence" to using FaW compared to BO which at least drains weapon power after its use.

4. It "costs" less to run FaW3 compared to cannons CRF3 or even CSV3 allowing for the use of APO3 or APB3 without having to sacrifice single target damage.

5. Single target burst damage from beam weapons should come from BO not what is billed as an AoE attack.

6. Does it ever miss? I'm serious about that one, as silly as it might sound, the hit rate seems rather high when I think about it. Don't butcher me over this one as it just came to mind and I admittedly have not tested it.

Beams have always had the advantage of wider arcs to make up for their lower dps compared to DHC's. Additionally, they have the advantage of Target Subsystems, Beam Overload, or an AoE FaW attack, do not suffer from range dropoffs, are essentially instantaneous time on target, and can be equipped at essentially one level lower then their cannon BoFF counterpart.

There is a very obvious reason why so many have switched over to Beams running a FaW build and it has nothing to do with the pretty colors. Most guys are running FaW for the insane burst damage not the AoE attack. And if that is the case then truthfully answer what the heck was BO intended for?

[Archived Post]

Torpedoes don't work too well in pvp, great in pve though. Sometimes i use 2 dhc plus 2 dc but normally i use 1 dba, 1 dhc, 2 dc. Not using dual beam arrays means losing most of my tactical skills. Beam target engines/shield or fire at will or even overload.

[Archived Post]

A quick list of my issues with FaW:

1. Against a single target it easily does more damage then a similar escort running a cannon build.

Yet, with my regular 2xcannons, DBB, FAW running CRF2/BOL3, I can decloak into a Fedball, take out a weak target and run.. I cannot do that with a FAW build (I use both builds)

2. I don't agree that any AoE attack should inherently do more damage against a single target then against multiple.

Maybe, maybe not.. Its still fairly easy to mitigate FAW damage substantially (thats the sole reason I have 3 mines in my rear slots - 2x Chrono 1x Tric, with 2 Lt mine abilities)

3. There is no adverse "consequence" to using FaW compared to BO which at least drains weapon power after its use.

Other than it being more or less useless against a TSI style tight Fedball (you know, tons of mines and photonics) or Carrier swarms?


4. It "costs" less to run FaW3 compared to cannons CRF3 or even CSV3 allowing for the use of APO3 or APB3 without having to sacrifice single target damage.

Sure it does, but neither of those skills gets mitigated severely the more targets there are in your frontal arc (I could however see all cannon skills being moved down a tier)

5. Single target burst damage from beam weapons should come from BO not what is billed as an AoE attack.

FAW is not "real" burst damage.. Having used multiple escort builds I can say this: I do less damage and have same number of kills on my Cannon/DBB/Torp Escort.. That means its more effective.. FAW doesnt even begin to compare to a BOL3 crit (90k+ hits?)

6. Does it ever miss? I'm serious about that one, as silly as it might sound, the hit rate seems rather high when I think about it. Don't butcher me over this one as it just came to mind and I admittedly have not tested it.

Yeah, it misses a lot.. When a enemy escort hits evasive, I see far more misses than numbers flying over the target.. Against a slow/stationary target, it obviously have a quite high hitrate :)


Beams have always had the advantage of wider arcs to make up for their lower dps compared to DHC's. Additionally, they have the advantage of Target Subsystems, Beam Overload, or an AoE FaW attack, do not suffer from range dropoffs, are essentially instantaneous time on target, and can be equipped at essentially one level lower then their cannon BoFF counterpart.

There is a very obvious reason why so many have switched over to Beams running a FaW build and it has nothing to do with the pretty colors. Most guys are running FaW for the insane burst damage not the AoE attack. And if that is the case then truthfully answer what the heck was BO intended for?

I started using it specifically for nailing mine/pet/photonic swarms.. Over a whole match, it (usually) do more total damage, but it also take more damage to kill targets.. Overall a regular cannonbuild is more cost effective.. For burstdamage Id much prefer my old cannon loadout, but Im sorta locked in this build for the time beings (since one of my Tacs are in a Intrepid atm, and the other is dualspecced for Defiant *and* Assault Cruiser, with nearly all Eng skills capped)

With 3 minelaunchers strapped to my butt, I dont really have problems with 1 escort using FAW.. Every time a mine fires (often) it launches between 5 and 8 mines.. That alone mitigates a TON of FAW DPS.. If I need more than that, I have a clustertorp ready to equip in place of the Tric.

[Archived Post]

1. Against a typical crap fed group I could probably decloak in the middle of them and take one or two out with a hammer and make it out. Sorry, not taking much stock in that first point at all. Yes I concede you actually have to know when to use FaW to get the most out of it but its not like you cant have other abilities in a FaW build especially in a Defiant with 8 tac slots.

2. Still not address why any AoE attack should do more against a single target then against multiple. Furthermore, the whole fact that Fedballs are cranking out 8 million mines in an effort to mitigate FaW speaks volumes imo.

3. A tight fedball froup like TSI is going to give everyone in the game right now a hard time regardless of builds and using them as a baseline example is flawed. Didn't address my point of FaW not having any downside to it being used compared to BO.

4. Hey if you guys want to move cannon abilities down one to be on par with their beam counterparts I wont argue.

5. The BO 90k crits are pretty rare....in fact I don't even recall the last time I was hit for anything like that. However, the point being is that BO can miss and then thats it. There is no second shot with it and furthermore the user just took a substantial energy power drain to use it. FaW is active for the entire duration without any negative "side effects" and with each DBB hitting for a good 2.5K per tick it adds up extremely fast.

Lastly, if FaW is so situational with so many drawbacks compared to a cannon build why is everyone and their brother using it? This one always confuses me as many of the top players that I know of are running it and their sole purpose in the match is face melter. I don't mind people arguing weather or not FaW is working as intended but the whole "its really not that good" argument I find lacking. I mean everyone is running it for the sole purpose of its single target damage output. Then just figuring out other abilities or attack angles/approaches to make sure you got one tgt in the arc to melt them. Nobody finds that gimmicky? I mean call a spade a spade for goodness sake.

[Archived Post]

2. Still not address why any AoE attack should do more against a single target then against multiple.

Why not? And moreover, is Beam Fire At Will actually a "traditional" AoE attack? I don't think it is, since it hits many targets randomly. A typical area of effect power simply hits all targets in its area. So if it is not typical in that regard, why should it be typical in another regard?

[Archived Post]

Unfortunately, Aceton Field is fart oo easily countered with Hazard Emitters.

hmm... educate me here....

I've never used Acetone field myself, as the only cruiser i have is a dedicated healer. Nor have i ever had Acetone used on me in pvp.

I know Hazards take care of the DoT from it. Does it also clear the damage reduction debuff? I remember being hit with in in the KDF storyline missions, and it rendered me basically useless. afaik nothing i did cleared it from me when i got it from those NPCs, not even HE.

And the damage reduction i got from 3 Acetone fields meant it took a fully buffed alphastrike from me to kill a tricobalt mine! :D

[Archived Post]

I suppose the easiest way to "fix" FaW is to limit its use to beam arrays.

[Archived Post]

In terms of Escorts/BoPs:

CRF- Great single target damage, no AOE. Most reliable skill to put the damage where you want it.

CSV - Good single target damage. Best AOE. Can deliver good single target damage and AOE at the same time with enough weapons power and EPS.

FAW - Great single target damage yet heavily situational, weak AOE. Unlike CSV there is nothing you can do to make single target damage strong at the same time as AOE. Low skill point investment. More effected by piloting than the other two skills.

All three are perfectly valid choices with obvious strengths and weaknesses for each. I personally enjoy the "challenge" of using FAW and make use of the low investment cost to spec into a variety of things. Like every other skill in the game it's a trade off.

And I still think FAW yielding escorts are generally fail. BoP or go home.

[Archived Post]

1. Against a typical crap fed group I could probably decloak in the middle of them and take one or two out with a hammer and make it out. Sorry, not taking much stock in that first point at all. Yes I concede you actually have to know when to use FaW to get the most out of it but its not like you cant have other abilities in a FaW build especially in a Defiant with 8 tac slots.

2. Still not address why any AoE attack should do more against a single target then against multiple. Furthermore, the whole fact that Fedballs are cranking out 8 million mines in an effort to mitigate FaW speaks volumes imo.

3. A tight fedball froup like TSI is going to give everyone in the game right now a hard time regardless of builds and using them as a baseline example is flawed. Didn't address my point of FaW not having any downside to it being used compared to BO.

4. Hey if you guys want to move cannon abilities down one to be on par with their beam counterparts I wont argue.

5. The BO 90k crits are pretty rare....in fact I don't even recall the last time I was hit for anything like that. However, the point being is that BO can miss and then thats it. There is no second shot with it and furthermore the user just took a substantial energy power drain to use it. FaW is active for the entire duration without any negative "side effects" and with each DBB hitting for a good 2.5K per tick it adds up extremely fast.

Lastly, if FaW is so situational with so many drawbacks compared to a cannon build why is everyone and their brother using it? This one always confuses me as many of the top players that I know of are running it and their sole purpose in the match is face melter. I don't mind people arguing weather or not FaW is working as intended but the whole "its really not that good" argument I find lacking. I mean everyone is running it for the sole purpose of its single target damage output. Then just figuring out other abilities or attack angles/approaches to make sure you got one tgt in the arc to melt them. Nobody finds that gimmicky? I mean call a spade a spade for goodness sake.


ya but against pugs, you can also use your cannons & CRF to down 1 or 2 before they notice you're actually there.. you can't really use pug as an example on how good or bad FAW is..

you don't pump out 8billion mines just to stop FAW, they're chronitons, tricobalt mines which reduce speed, turn and stun, you pump them out regardless the escorts are using FAW or CRF... if you see ppl taking 2x photon mines to stop FAW, then you can smack them in the head and ask wtf are you doing

There is no reason why FAW should have a downside because there is one on BO or the fact that both of them are beam abilities.. I think you're confusing yourself by comparing FAW to BO, they're different abilities with different sets of parametres... if you think of FAW as Beam Rapid Fire and BO as Beam High Yield, it may clear up things a bit

but no I do agree that FAW is indeed intended as an AOE ability and the fact that it does more dmg vs a single target doesn't really make sense as far as the idea behind FAW goes... (ie in the description it says you fire at the targets at your officers discretion)

or move FAW up to comm... I don't really mind

The reason why (at least what I think) some of the better pvpers use it is because
1) they have mastered or at least are much better at singling out their target
2) it clears mines, fighter pets, photonic fleet spams
3) it looks cool
4) the fact that the range matters more to cannon than to beams, but at point blank range, CRF does more dmg than beams FAW, anything other than inside optium cannon range FAW does better dmg
5) 90 degree instead of 45 degree give you an advantage when you turn to face the enemy.. you fire before any cannon build, but ofc that is the drawback as well

No, "it's not that good" on a nub, but in experienced hands it's amazing, like any other abilities

[Archived Post]

In terms of Escorts/BoPs:

CRF- Great single target damage, no AOE. Most reliable skill to put the damage where you want it.

CSV - Good single target damage. Best AOE. Can deliver good single target damage and AOE at the same time with enough weapons power and EPS.

FAW - Great single target damage yet heavily situational, weak AOE. Unlike CSV there is nothing you can do to make single target damage strong at the same time as AOE. Low skill point investment. More effected by piloting than the other two skills.

All three are perfectly valid choices with obvious strengths and weaknesses for each. I personally enjoy the "challenge" of using FAW and make use of the low investment cost to spec into a variety of things. Like every other skill in the game it's a trade off.
.

Couldn't put it better myself

[Archived Post]

I suppose the easiest way to "fix" FaW is to limit its use to beam arrays.

From what I heard, what you described is what it once was... no one used FAW 2 or 3 because it's pointless to, except FAW 1 to clear mines and other critters from a cruiser.. so it's not a good fix at all

[Archived Post]

And I still think FAW yielding escorts are generally fail. BoP or go home.

Just respecced my KDF tac into a BOP..

FAW3, TBR3, Beta, weap/aux battery, Tac buffs = Amazing

Escorts dont hold a candle to a BOP in that regard, especially since I have 2x EP2S2 - 2x ET1 - HE3 - TSS2 to get by with :D

Wonder why BOPs ever die :p

[Archived Post]

but bop is one end of the extreme, by sacrificing shield and hull for best turn... no matter what TSS3 or whatever you have, your starting point is lower, therefore making you more fragile than escorts

Imho bop - best dual cannon ship, over kill on turning for faw which isn't a bad thing
escort - good for both faw and cannons, but against faster turning ship, faw is better

[Archived Post]

but no I do agree that FAW is indeed intended as an AOE ability and the fact that it does more dmg vs a single target doesn't really make sense as far as the idea behind FAW goes...

According to the tooltip, this is exactly the idea Cryptic had when making FAW. But i do agree they should have called it something else... like Beam Auto Target. (and they could make the rank III version a Cmdr ability, I wouldn't mind. Running two copies is a complete waste anyway IMO)


No, "it's not that good" on a nub, but in experienced hands it's amazing, like any other abilities

pretty much... it's a power that can be effectively used if you're good, and effectively countered if you're good. In two equally skilled teams it's not as good as a proper cannon build, but for a skilled player using it against an unskilled opponent its amazing! :)

I would like to see them making FAW a Beam Array only skill, BUT ONLY if they would introduce the new skill Beam Auto Target. BAT3 would work just as the current FAW3, except it would be a Cmdr skill and work only for DBBs.

[Archived Post]

Just respecced my KDF tac into a BOP..

FAW3, TBR3, Beta, weap/aux battery, Tac buffs = Amazing

Escorts dont hold a candle to a BOP in that regard, especially since I have 2x EP2S2 - 2x ET1 - HE3 - TSS2 to get by with :D

Wonder why BOPs ever die :p

Welcome to the club! Let tears flow like rivers from the eyes of our mutual whiny, vaguely troll-shaped enemies! :D

Although TBH TBR 3 is a bit overkill. Harder to control as well and you could probably have a more balanced build by going with TBR 1 or 2 and loading up some other high level skill in the Cmdr. slot. TBR 2 + Omega3 will do more damage and at the same time have a more controllable repulse than TBR3 will. Remember that you want to be 'huging' the enemy that you are repulsing to get higher damage and more repulse ticks in.

[Archived Post]

From what I heard, what you described is what it once was... no one used FAW 2 or 3 because it's pointless to, except FAW 1 to clear mines and other critters from a cruiser.. so it's not a good fix at all

I think the problem was that it affected only one beam weapon, like beam overload. And one weapon with FaW is indeed useless.
Limiting FaW to beam arrays removes the relative ease of focussing fire on a single target, but does not cut noticeably into 1v1 damage (i.e. the PvE situation).

i'm not saying that I want FaW changed, just that I think limiting it to arrays would be an easier solution than attempting a rebalance of its damage which most likely would make it totally useless for any purpose, considering the history of nerfs in this game.

[Archived Post]

Can I refer you to Jorf's post on CRF CSV FAW comparison..

[Archived Post]

but bop is one end of the extreme, by sacrificing shield and hull for best turn... no matter what TSS3 or whatever you have, your starting point is lower, therefore making you more fragile than escorts

Imho bop - best dual cannon ship, over kill on turning for faw
escort - good for both faw and cannons, but against faster turning ship, faw is better

Point was that if you use FAW, you kinda need TBR. Examples following (my builds)

Defiant: 4 DBB - 2 Chroniton mines - 1 Tricmine

TacTeam - DP A - FAW3 - Omega3
TacTeam - DP B - FAW3
BOL1

EP2S1+2

SciTeam - TBR1


BOP: 4 DBB - 2 Chroniton mines

SciT1 - TSS2 - HE3 - TBR3 (replaced by one with PH1 if needed)

BOL1 - Beta - FAW3

ET1 - EP2S2
ET1 - EP2S2

So, while the BOP have less hull, it also have FAR more resists and heals.. TBR3 alone fully buffed is good damage (but not quite enough to kill people), combined with a buffed FAW3 salvo, its insane. Its more effective than my Defiant atleast

[Archived Post]

i'm not saying that I want FaW changed, just that I think limiting it to arrays would be an easier solution than attempting a rebalance of its damage which most likely would make it totally useless for any purpose, considering the history of nerfs in this game.

so you don't just want to change it, you want to completely break it?

there IS a reason why noone is running FAW3 and Beam Arrays atm you know. It is a skill you would be using only when there is only ONE target within 10 km of you... and that means never. (or good as never)

[Archived Post]

Beam Overload has the potential to put out an insane crit, but lately it is just as likely (or more so) to miss which leaves the BO user in worse shape than the BFAW user. BFAW has a long up time compared to BO which is one shot and done. There is also no significantly draw back in terms of ones power level when using BFAW whereas BO hurts, especially when it misses. Sure it takes some skill to use, just like most other simple tac combination, but there just isn't as much risk when using BFAW.

I can get over it in team play, but it is insanely over powered in one on one. That being said, you can't balance a team based game around on one on one play. As it is right now though, if only one person has BFAW that's almost THE deciding factor.

Also, if you just want your beam boat to clear mines and the like all you have to do is clear your target and spam space bar. Your beams will truely Fire At Will:D. In terms of graphics, the firing rate is just about what it should be but it's still just normal damage as the attack isn't boosted. I see no reason that BFAW should have an enhanced firing rate and huge damage boost. Slow the rate down, keep the accuracy up and maybe use the same damage boost that it has now (even bump it a bit).

[Archived Post]

I'm pretty sure the power drain is higher when running FAW...

How about upping it to a Cmdr skill? It would cut the up-time in half, and you would have to run it with APO1 instead of APO3, so damage would also be cut a little.

(Ofc, this would completely ruin my evil aft mine-sweeper on my cannon-escorts, but I'd just have to live with that :p)

[Archived Post]

so you don't just want to change it, you want to completely break it?

there IS a reason why noone is running FAW3 and Beam Arrays atm you know. It is a skill you would be using only when there is only ONE target within 10 km of you... and that means never. (or good as never)

First : I don't want it changed. It can stay as it is. But since there are players who want it changed, I suggested a possible way of changing it.

Second: Nobody is using FaW with arrays on an escort (cruisers with arrays+faw do exist) because beam banks are vastly superior. It's the same reason nobody uses Omega2. Why use it when there is a superior alternative without any drawbacks?

Third: I don't think limiting it to arrays would break it completely. It would reduce its use as a single target damage dealing skill (and that's the point of any demaded change to FaW), but with enough repulser use and skill it should still be possible to single out a target (or two). And then there is another thing: The only real drawback to FaW on escorts is the difficulty to focus a single target. Here is an idea: Don't use one ship to shoot 3-5 ships, use 3 ships to shoot them. 3 ships shooting 3 ships with FaW = roughly the same damage as 1 ship shooting 1 ship with FaW.

[Archived Post]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVSqQfQGAyQ&feature=player_embedded
faw3 bops totaly balanced.

[Archived Post]

Appreciate the civil discussions going on....lately some of these threads have gotten a bit heated and its good to see some constructive debate.

[Archived Post]

nah it dont require a nerf. the mine drop counters it anyway. :)

its just extreme damage and useful in the right hands, but in just anyones hands it isnt. I personally love it and I use, but sometimes I switch back to cannons. I mean burst dps at 2000+ comes in handy sometimes to finsish that difficult target hanging at 50% hull.

if you made it so it affected beam arrays only then DBB would have to get a buff power. Since CRF = Cannons
FAW = BEam array, DBB would need one, so i think its fine.

[Archived Post]

so zorena you have some sort of script, i dont know what its called that presses a button on your keyboard all the time? and that button would be the button you have binded to balance shields? cause i see your shields always balancing.

[Archived Post]

Its all buffs on the lower bar is binded to spacebar.

[Archived Post]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVSqQfQGAyQ&feature=player_embedded
faw3 bops totaly balanced.

Bah, you aren't even using it right. Don't chain different levels of FAW ;)

[Archived Post]

I just got a warning from Cryptic to change my Avatar.....I mean WTF who doesn't like it?!

[Archived Post]

:( /10char

[Archived Post]

I just got a warning from Cryptic to change my Avatar.....I mean WTF who doesn't like it?!

LMAO. I can't concentrate on the pew with that there. The eye strain is awful. My wrist hurts. Can you at least blow it up...?

[Archived Post]

I just got a warning from Cryptic to change my Avatar.....I mean WTF who doesn't like it?!

Sci-fi geeks can't handle boobies. :(

[Archived Post]

I just got a warning from Cryptic to change my Avatar.....I mean WTF who doesn't like it?!

lmao.

Wait.. what? I mean seriously.. wth?

[Archived Post]

I just got a warning from Cryptic to change my Avatar.....I mean WTF who doesn't like it?!

I think they want you to remove the hands.

[Archived Post]

I just got a warning from Cryptic to change my Avatar.....I mean WTF who doesn't like it?!

ROFL! If she was green you might have gotten away with it. I can honestly say I have no problem with it. :D