Immunity of any kind, especially one that's up for 30 seconds every 2 minutes, is a bad idea. I hate power drain too but that's almost as silly as another thread suggesting that pets should be immune to warp core breaches.

I'd like to see significantly different hull values between the ship types but for now, until they can balance out yo-yo healing, instagibbing, and reduce the drastic gap between a buffed and unbuffed ship it's not the right time.

Also, what is this about a buff to Danubes? I'm pretty sure they increased the cool down on their Tractor Beams which is a fix (and probably considered by many to be a nerf). Or did I miss something?

Cruisers are very relevant........ if you fly a D'Kora or Vorcha sporting DHC's !

I have an Ody and Mirror Assault too...but the D'Kora is just more fun.....


Happy Friday folks!

Locutus

I agree making MW (once more) and RSF castable on allies and give Engineers an innate passive hull dmg resist (10% all energy and kinetic) would actually get more Engineers into PvP.

As it is, Engies don't bring anything to the table, certainly not for team support, enemy debuffing.

more like, can turn your target into a bowling pin

Hm, in Capture and Hold, and engineer's cruiser's ability to survive a little longer under heavy fire is actually useful. Arena is, of course just "collect kills", but as soon as other stuff comes into play, engineers become more relevant. Although probably still not on par with Tactical or Science captains.

I would also imagine that a "once killed, you are out of the match" type of PvP map might see more engineers.

Problem is:

There are only five innate abilities that differentiate the career choices and for some reason folks think that it is more than just that.

Tac -
Attack Pattern Alpha
Fire on My Mark
Tactical Initiative
Go Down Fighting
Tactical Fleet

Sci -
Sensor Scan
Subnucleonic Beam
Scattering Field
Photonic Fleet
Science Fleet

Eng -
Rotate Shield Frequency
EPS Power Transfer
Nadion Inversion
Miracle Worker
Engineering Fleet

That's it. That's all that differentiates the three career choices. BOFF layouts? That's ship dependent - that's not career dependent. Training some of those BOFF abilities that are captain only when you're not that captain type? Get somebody else to do it - run a second account - again, that's not really career dependent either.

So how about those five abilities for each career then?

Let's look at Tac first:

APA will increase the Tac's damage regardless of what ship they're in. A ship that initially does more damage to begin with, will benefit the most from it - but it boosts the Tac's damage regardless of what ship they're flying.

FoMM doesn't really matter what ship the Tac's flying. It's lowering the target's resists so the team can do more damage. Yes, if you're flying solo - it's going to be the typical it will do you the most good if you're in an already high damage ship.

Much like FoMM, neither Tactical Initiative nor Tactical Fleet really matter - unless you're flying solo. They're good team buffs.

GDF's like APA with a twist. It's that fun game of Russian Roulette - flying the ship that you're comfortable being at low hull - easy to get there without going pop, etc, etc, etc.

So how about Sci next:

None of them matter. They're all good for the team. It matters more if you're flying solo, but they're all team buffs or debuffs that help the team.

That leaves us with Eng:

And well... WTF?

Both RSF and MW are self defensive buffs/heals. One could say the counter of the two Tac self offensive buffs, eh? They lend themselves to "tanking" - which is pointless in PvP*.

NI's drain resistance...another "tanking" ability.

EPS and EF - well then, something for the allies, eh?

So what does all that mean?

Regardless of the ship the Tac or the Sci is flying, they've got goodies they bring for the team. The Eng on the other hand, well - they're just "tankier" in whatever ship they're flying.

The Tac has 3 team abilities and 2 self abilities.
The Sci has 5 team abilities.
The Eng has 3 self abilities and 2 team/ally abilities.

The Tac and Sci have so many options - because of what they bring with their 5 abilities. The Eng...just doesn't. So wham-bam, they're made the Healer. Not because they're the best Healers - no, not in the least. They're the tankiest Healers. Then again, they're the tankiest DPS as well. They're just too self-centered - they just don't have the team goodies.

If the Eng had team abilities - they'd fit in with the Tac and Sci. They don't though. So drop them in a Cruiser or a Recluse and call them a Healer...

...it's sad. It's really sad. It's just another example of the PvE focus of the game. Eng as "space tank" - even though it's ground abilities offer all sorts of support love for the team...without looking like the "ground tank"...

If the Eng in Space was more like they were on the Ground, then they wouldn't be the "Oh God, please no!" career they tend to be... look at the ground abilities: 1 self and 4 team.

* Tank...survivability is good. Tank... come, mindless NPCs and beat on me while my friends heal me and kill you - just doesn't work in PvP.

not even broken, just doff buffed. doffs fixed everything that was wrong with science, except the shield drain abilities.

Engineers lack a forte their is no doubt. And that forte would be easy enough to create and push them into. The masters of energy. Hear me out.

EPS Power Transfer: Instead of adding just a crapton of typically useless energy allow it to increase energy level modifiers by say 20% just to see what happens. That means instead of 125 weapon energy giving you 250% damage it would instead grant 300%. This would be useful in all types of roles from tanking, healing, damage dealing, etc.

Nadion Inversion: Really just needs a higher up-time amount and it would be rock solid. Not necessary to change.

Engineering Fleet: Add on a +10% energy level effectiveness for the entire team. As is it is the weakest of the three.

Miracle Worker: Needs to add resists and/or be a true cleanse aka remove all debuffs. And useable on others. The name alone requires it to be amazing not a crappy engineering team + science team rolled into one.

Rotate Shield Frequency: No real reason this is self only that I can understand but it is a solid ability.


That would make engineers unique and who knows what type of builds players could come up with.