Hi Bort, thanks for stopping by with status updates.



I think the dramatic effect is the actual issue.

Suddenly losing your shields or engines, is easily stronger than anything any other proc is realistically capable of - immunity period or no.

We also now have several sources of phaser procs, which has grown to include Phased Tetryon & Phased Polaron.




Yes, based on current play experience.

The changes that were made months ago saw Plasmonic Leech and Siphon Drones be resisted less than actual BOFF powers by PI.




The issue is with the Energy Weapon DOFFs that have a SNB like proc, not the actual SNB Captains power.



Interesting.

Weapon: Tetryon
Issue: Proc seems to be underperforming, is relatively weak to start and is also further resisted by PI.
Status: To be advised by Cryptic


Skill: Starship Sensors
Issue: Starship Sensors appropriately cuts the time down for skills such as Scramble Sensors - but has zero effect on the duration of AMS. I tested this personally by having AMS cast on me 5 times in a row in a controlled testing situation using Scramble as the control (Opponent had a 32s scramble which was reduced to 18s each time from 6 ranks in sensors - which equates to 42% resistance, similar to PI).
Status: To be advised by Cryptic

Its aux powered and its actually gets higher duration last time I checked it with Starship Subspace Decompiler. On my main sci's vo'quv carrier I got scramble sensors 3 to somewhere near 25 seconds with around 100+ aux power.

Thanks Bort for coming in with the information you provided. It makes me EXTREMELY happy to see so many powers that really do have lowball issues or nerfed due to resists being labeled in the Under Review category.

Which makes me wonder......May's update is being called so big it's not a Season..

Does that mean that the reason those effects are being Under review with Photonic Officer possibly being rebuilt they are going to come out in May or some time after... almost making May a HUGE power/balance redo? And in turn with some of the suggestions about a PVP Rep system making May's Update a true PVP update?

If that's the case.. I'll be dancing on cloud 9... especially if it improves the game play even more!

You misunderstand.

Starship Sensors resists skills like Scramble, the same way that Power Insulators Resists energy/shield drains.

And while it is working properly, reducing the duration of Scramble Sensors - it is not reducing the duration of AMS, which is in the same category of confuses/placates.


The reason for my post is AMS not being cut in duration, Scramble was used as an example.

Weapon: Phased Tetryon weapons
Issue: tet proc is only half as strong as the tet proc of stranded tetryon weapons. no other procs on hybrid weapons have reduced magnitude like this. its at the same level it was at before it and the other procs got a balance pass a wile back.
Status: bugged Jesse Heinig on opvp about it a few times, he said he'd pass it along

Yeah I understand that but for time being I just mentioned it incase you didn't know because lots of pressing issues like this and the b'rel never get looked into

Edit: as well those science resists are bad enough before they gave even more resists to an already over nerfed area...

With the ensign powers listed by Bort:

Could these not be nerfed too much until MORE ensign level powers are available to choose from? Right now they still trigger the shared cooldown and DO have some difference between them and their higher tier counterparts. Unfortunately it's not like we can slot Photonic Officer I or Some other such power in an Ensign slot.

Ages ago there was a discussion that more powers were getting put into the Ensign range of stations. Is that not happening now?

I'll add DEM to the list.

Link to what I posted in other PvP balance thread
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/sh...41#post7760541


Skill: Directed Energy Modulation
Issue: Provides substandard direct to hull damage ( up to 30 - 40 dmg per pulse) with beam weapons. DEM2 and especially DEM3 are seemingly useless for cruisers. Cruisers are highly unlikely to directly take down another players shields. Applying direct to hull damage seems like a great way to side step that problem, but at <40dmg per pulse, with beams its not enough to make an escort player twitch let alone another cruiser or Sci ship. Perhaps the skill needs to be based on a percentage of weapons damage, that way skills and buffs increase its bleed through damage too and doesn't make it dependant on the number of pulses to be effective.

Perhaps the skill works well with cannons (lots of pulses) haven't tried, but Cruisers are typically (and should) be using regular beams (not many pulses) and so with DEM3 in your COM level boff slot and 6+ beams the skill ends up pretty underwhelming for a top tier skill.

As to the SNB Doffs: It's my opinion that in their current state, they're actually rather ineffective in PVP, to the point that I've ditched them in favour of other doffs. Why? Very simply, this is due to the elite fleet shields that provide a large number of short-duration buffs, which tend to act as 'shields' against SNB doffs that are quickly replaced. I imagine that this is a completely unintended consequence of the mechanical implementation of the new shields, but it's there.

Question for Borticus: Are the additional resistances from the proc on the Elite Fleet Shields subject to diminishing returns in the same way that emergency power to X, TSS, etc. are? I've been trying to calculate some stuff, and assuming that they are not affected by diminishing returns, the Elite Fleet Shields have more HP than the Mk. 12 Maco when resistances are taken into consideration, effectively making the Maco shields useless despite being far more difficult to obtain.