Tractor Beams Overpowered

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Tractor Beams are overpowered when it comes to PvP. Especially since there are very limited countermeasures (especially at the first Tier).

Not only that, it should be just a pure root with the ability to resist and not a DoT with a root.

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Tractor beam mainly prevents you from turning and slows down your speed a bit. If you increase power to engines and hit evasive you can easily force your way out of it. You can also use jam sensors or polarize hull to counter it. I think it is a pretty reasonable skill at the moment.

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tractor beams annoying but fine as it is, at t1 you have evasive manuvears and polorize hull that work fine at either bringing your guns to bear, and just getting out of there.

If people keep crying every powers OP this games gonna be very dull as soon as they're all nerfed.

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Tractor beam mainly prevents you from turning and slows down your speed a bit. If you increase power to engines and hit evasive you can easily force your way out of it. You can also use jam sensors or polarize hull to counter it. I think it is a pretty reasonable skill at the moment.

Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.

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Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.

Same applies for the guys with Tractor beam, if they've managed to do it to get that skill why cant you?

[Archived Post]

Tractor Beams are overpowered when it comes to PvP. Especially since there are very limited countermeasures (especially at the first Tier).

Not only that, it should be just a pure root with the ability to resist and not a DoT with a root.

I've often said how much of a showstopper tractor beam is for KDF.

It's not 'overpowered' by any means. It's immensely situational, it just so happens that so many KDF rely so heavily on positional firing and hit and run, that tractor beam completely counters their strategy.

I think what needs to be pointed out is that this is not so much an indication of tractor beam being overpowered, as much as it is an indication that some players may be opting for strategies that are much too reliant on opportunity.

Cannons are wonderful. They are the highest damage dealing, most energy efficient weapons in the game with a excellent variety of damage types and a good synergy in the skill tree. That can lead players to relying on them too heavily, and not realizing that they are putting all their eggs in one basket.

The more feds realize that KDF are relying on positional weapons, the more they will counter with making themselves more maneuverable, targetting enemy engines, and tractor beam.

Adapt, and overcome.

Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.

I'm going to say this as gently as possible, but get back in there and earn your stripes. The last thing you can bring to this discussion is a lack of preparation as an excuse.

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Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.


I'm going to say this as gently as possible, but get back in there and earn your stripes. The last thing you can bring to this discussion is a lack of preparation as an excuse.

I have to agree with Meat here. All Klingons start with enough Honor points to change all 3 of their starting BOff's' powers. It's only 75 Honor for 1st tier powers and Klingons don't even have to worry about the ground powers for their BOffs as the only time they'll use them is in the one ground War Zone, that's currently closed due to bugs. Even then, if they were in a full group, their BOffs still wouldn't join them. So that's only 225 Honor to change all 3 Ensign space skills. If you also want to change the officers themselves that's another 300. We all start with something like 600 plus what we earn in those first missions before ever leaving Qo'nos.

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I have to agree with Meat here. All Klingons start with enough Honor points to change all 3 of their starting BOff's' powers. It's only 75 Honor for 1st tier powers and Klingons don't even have to worry about the ground powers for their BOffs as the only time they'll use them is in the one ground War Zone, that's currently closed due to bugs. Even then, if they were in a full group, their BOffs still wouldn't join them. So that's only 225 Honor to change all 3 Ensign space skills. If you also want to change the officers themselves that's another 300. We all start with something like 600 plus what we earn in those first missions before ever leaving Qo'nos.

Thanks monthar. I wasn't going to bother explaining that, because I would expect that anyone who had played klingons would already know this, which puts this argument in perspective.

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Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.

This is mostly untrue.

The tutorial boffs start with those skills, however the boffs earned in the first few missions get different skills, and then there are the ones that randomly ask to be a part of your crew.

Any new players should be able to get whatever skills they wish prior to level 6.

[Archived Post]

Tractor Beams are overpowered when it comes to PvP. Especially since there are very limited countermeasures (especially at the first Tier).

Not only that, it should be just a pure root with the ability to resist and not a DoT with a root.

PVP is a game of chess. Powers are powerful unless you have a counter. If you want to counter tractorbeam there are skills you can use, and easily counter all tractor beams.

Tractor is not over powered, and I say this as a BoP captain who is screwed without tractor counters.

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I have to agree with Meat here. All Klingons start with enough Honor points to change all 3 of their starting BOff's' powers. It's only 75 Honor for 1st tier powers and Klingons don't even have to worry about the ground powers for their BOffs as the only time they'll use them is in the one ground War Zone, that's currently closed due to bugs. Even then, if they were in a full group, their BOffs still wouldn't join them. So that's only 225 Honor to change all 3 Ensign space skills. If you also want to change the officers themselves that's another 300. We all start with something like 600 plus what we earn in those first missions before ever leaving Qo'nos.

Yeah, but a new player isn't going to know that. And when they get into PvP, they will be at a disadvantage against those who have been playing awhile, is it not?

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polarize hull
hazard emitters
science team

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Yeah, since there are several good counters I really don't see what's overpowered with it. You can't pvp until rank 6, and by then you should have more than enough merits/honor to change to the skills you want.

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Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.
Coming out the tutorial as a Fed player you have more than enough to purchase a Science Officer with Polarize Hull or train the Science Officer you chose while in the Tutorial.

Tractor Beam is a non-issue for Federation players.

After you finish the initial mission as a Klingon and get your 3 Bridge Officers, you have around 500 or so Honor. More than enough to spend 75 and dump Tachyon Beam for Polarize Hull.

Tractor Beam is a non-issue for Klingon players.

Stop asking for nerfs because you are a sub-optimal player.

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The very first place you get sent to is a room where you can buy boffs or you can change their abilities to whatever you feel like within their tier. There's no excuse for not knowing.

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This isn't a serious thread is it?

[Archived Post]

Tractor Beams are overpowered when it comes to PvP. Especially since there are very limited countermeasures (especially at the first Tier).

Not only that, it should be just a pure root with the ability to resist and not a DoT with a root.

Wow, do Klingons ever stop crying? Seriously you guys got MES nerfed to useless, now you want tractor beam gone.

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Yeah, but a new player isn't going to know that. And when they get into PvP, they will be at a disadvantage against those who have been playing awhile, is it not?

You can't PvP until level 6. Everyone has to do the beginning Federation stuff to get to level 6. The first thing Admiral Quinn tells you to do is go talk to the skills trainer who explains training of and learning skills. So, if someone is just clicking the green text buttons in the dialog pop-ups to blow through the missions as fast as possible without reading the info provided, well, it's their own fault for not knowing about swapping skills around.

Oh, and that skills trainer is standing right across from the BOff Powers Trainer/store. Then on Qo'nos, the BOff powers trainer is right next to the first mission giver that tells you to train your captain skills before letting you fight in the ring. So, if folks don't take the time to actually check out various trainers and vendors to see what their options are, again it's their own fault.

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Yeah, but a new player isn't going to know that. And when they get into PvP, they will be at a disadvantage against those who have been playing awhile, is it not?

Wow, really? Need any cheese with that whine? Obviously there is a learning curve, someone will always be at a disadvantage. There is always going to be someone better, faster, smarter and more powerful than you, especially with that "woe is me" attitude. I would hope a new player would be at a disadvantage, otherwise it would be a pretty lame game. Not to mention it takes a competent player, I don't know, maybe 30 minutes of actually READING what the NPCs explain to you after creating a Klingon.

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Ok, let's be civil. There are new people everywhere, and we were new at one time as well.

So long as the guy understands what we've explained so far - that ignorance and a lack of preparation are -his- responsibilities, then everything is good.

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Wow, do Klingons ever stop crying? Seriously you guys got MES nerfed to useless, now you want tractor beam gone.

Pretty sure he's a federation character, nice try though.

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Yeah, but that's not an option for new players who are given the standard Tactical with High Yield, Science with Tachyon Beam, and Engineer with Emergency Shields. Because they are unable to purchase new officers until they earn enough to replace skills or officers.

You get evasive maneuvers fairly early. Tractor Beam has its counters, but you must learn to use your skills strategically..you can't just blow everything when you get into combat; you must anticipate, or prepare for, things such as TBs.

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I grabbed polarize hull plating myself, first thing. Makes tractor beams useless and also is a help for those pesky tractoring battleships in the Kahless expanse

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I grabbed polarize hull plating myself, first thing. Makes tractor beams useless and also is a help for those pesky tractoring battleships in the Kahless expanse

It also provides a pretty major energy weapon resistance.

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Yeah, but a new player isn't going to know that. And when they get into PvP, they will be at a disadvantage against those who have been playing awhile, is it not?

Um... isn't that a good thing? That means if you have some experience you are rewarded with an advantage over the inexperienced.

Also, you can get it without spending a single point of honor and without having to replace an existing officer. Yes, there a bit of luck required but I'll leave it to you to figure out how you can do that using a feature of the game.

Wow, do Klingons ever stop crying? Seriously you guys got MES nerfed to useless, now you want tractor beam gone.

I'm pretty sure there were (and still are) a lot of Feds complaining about how potent the combination of MES + Battle Cloak was. Maybe the were reacting to the feedback I sent them at how trivial a large portion of PvE missions were with MES. Then again, maybe they saw it was being used by such a large portion of the playerbase compared to other T1 Science BOff skills that they felt it needed adjusting.

As for the tractor beam, it's not OP. It's very situational and pretty easy to get out of, when used properly it can be devestating but most of the time it's something you can pretty much ignore. It's not like we get a lot of 1v1 PvP anyway so if you're locked by a tractor beam you're probably the primary for the entire opposing team so you're going to pop any second now anyway.

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jam targetting sensors ftw, if they cant target you it breaks the tractor beam.

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Not at all there are two ways to stop them and hold them off. I think it works fine.

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Not at all there are two ways to stop them and hold them off. I think it works fine.

4 that I can name off the top of my head.
evasive manuevers and brute force your way out
jam targeting sensors breaks the beam because it cant target anything anymore
attack pattern: omega breaks the beam in its nature
polarize hull breaks the beam in its nature

any other ones?

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Torpedoes are overpowered too, we should get rid of them as well.

Oh and don't forget energy weapons, lets get rid of those.

Ships should just ram each other and have both of them instantly explode, that way it's completely fair for everybody.

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Actually, I wouldn like Ramming to be in for Klingons earlier. But I can live with positioning myself and hurting others in my ship exploding. I've gotten a few kills that way in KvK furballs.

Wow, do Klingons ever stop crying? Seriously you guys got MES nerfed to useless, now you want tractor beam gone.

I wouldn't talk about crying, when you're whining about MES.

Pretty sure he's a federation character, nice try though.

I'm Both.

Honestly, I never liked the Tractor Beam causing damage, it supposed to hold you. Now I could see it damaging you if you tried to go full impulse or use Evasive.

You get evasive maneuvers fairly early. Tractor Beam has its counters, but you must learn to use your skills strategically..you can't just blow everything when you get into combat; you must anticipate, or prepare for, things such as TBs.

Sorry, but I'm an experienced PvP who has been working to balance things. It's just seems more complaining because Cryptic's PVP is Arena fights.


You can't PvP until level 6. Everyone has to do the beginning Federation stuff to get to level 6. The first thing Admiral Quinn tells you to do is go talk to the skills trainer who explains training of and learning skills. So, if someone is just clicking the green text buttons in the dialog pop-ups to blow through the missions as fast as possible without reading the info provided, well, it's their own fault for not knowing about swapping skills around.

Oh, and that skills trainer is standing right across from the BOff Powers Trainer/store. Then on Qo'nos, the BOff powers trainer is right next to the first mission giver that tells you to train your captain skills before letting you fight in the ring. So, if folks don't take the time to actually check out various trainers and vendors to see what their options are, again it's their own fault.

Sorry, but I'm not talking Federation, I'm talking from the Klingon side.

First time Klingon players are at a disadvantage, not in gear but not being allowed to select their crew. And they won't know about the ability to go to a BO trainer and what skills would be best used in PvP.

Wow, really? Need any cheese with that whine? Obviously there is a learning curve, someone will always be at a disadvantage. There is always going to be someone better, faster, smarter and more powerful than you, especially with that "woe is me" attitude. I would hope a new player would be at a disadvantage, otherwise it would be a pretty lame game. Not to mention it takes a competent player, I don't know, maybe 30 minutes of actually READING what the NPCs explain to you after creating a Klingon.

If you actually read what they said, they don't tell you how to PvP, genius.

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Well ignorance of new players is not an excuse. The first thing I did when I created my Klingon was discharge my 'Mission' BOs and replaced them with female Orion BOs, then purchased new level 1 abilities for each of them. Had more then enough merit/honor to spare.

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Sorry, but I'm not talking Federation, I'm talking from the Klingon side.

First time Klingon players are at a disadvantage, not in gear but not being allowed to select their crew. And they won't know about the ability to go to a BO trainer and what skills would be best used in PvP.

My point is, Everyone has to go through that quest before they can even unlock Klingon to play. Therefore they should already know about going to the BO trainer before they can even make a Klingon.

So it doesn't matter if you don't care about the federation side. The devs gave the info about skills to you on a silver platter. Once you do go Klingon they even reinforce the importance of training skills by forcing you to do so, before you're allowed to fight in the ring.

As for knowing what skills are best for PvP, that goes with knowing your enemy and knowing your own play style. Since you have to get to know at least the first 4 levels, or at most the first 6 levels of the Federation side you should already have an idea about what skills you like. If you've PvPed in other games, you should definitely know to look over the available skills and equipment to start thinking about how each could be used and what could possibly counter it. Sure, someone that never PvP'd before will not think about this, in PvP terms, but unless they've never played a video game that has various skills, equipment, weapons, etc, they should still have at least a simple understanding of how the skills should work based on the skill descriptions.

Someone that is truly new to both PvP and gaming (in all it's forms) is going to have a very steep learning curve no matter how much info is provided to them. In fact too much info could even turn them off due to overload. In this case, jumping into PvP as quickly as possible without trying to first learn the game is just asking for trouble.

In any case, the info is available to those who actually look for it instead of just blindly dive in. This whole argument is liken to someone not figuring out how to set the clock on their VCR because they didn't bother reading the manual first then complaining that no-one showed them how to do it.

Lastly, everyone starts with 2 character slots and earns a 3rd one as soon as they unlock Klingon play. So if they make mistakes while learning the game they can easily start over and mail any non-bound gear from their old character to their new one once they figure out how they want their character to be. This will be a moot point soon enough once repecs are in place, provided those respecs include BOff powers.