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Do Plasma Warheads have any affect on shield regen?


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Pods are quite nice while I'm able to use them, but they run out of ammo far too quickly, and though ammo isn't as big of a problem with Clusters, even Double Volley doesn't put out a lot of damage. So I'm content to make my secondaries more about utility than raw damage.

 

To that end, I'm curious about Plasma Warheads on both Pods and Clusters. Does the damage over time do anything to stop shield regen? That's my biggest problem in dealing with Strike Fighters, is overcoming their Quick-Charge Shields and getting to their Hull. Bombers and Gunships I don't have too much problem with, either secondary works well against them (though I favor Pods for Gunships since it gives them less time to boost away), but I still have problems against Strike Fighters as a Flashfire,with either secondary or just about any laser, Burst included. I've fully upgraded Rapids, Lights and Bursts at this point, and while Bursts have their moments, I still favor Rapids for their consistency and ease of use (easy to aim, big firing arc, less power drain even with Freq Capacitor).

 

I need some way of overcoming their Quick-Charge shields and preventing them from regenerating so quickly, hence why I'm asking about Plasma Warheads. Does the dot do anything to prevent shield regen?

Edited by Loadsamonie
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Pods are quite nice while I'm able to use them, but they run out of ammo far too quickly, and though ammo isn't as big of a problem with Clusters, even Double Volley doesn't put out a lot of damage. So I'm content to make my secondaries more about utility than raw damage.

 

To that end, I'm curious about Plasma Warheads on both Pods and Clusters. Does the damage over time do anything to stop shield regen? That's my biggest problem in dealing with Strike Fighters, is overcoming their Quick-Charge Shields and getting to their Hull. Bombers and Gunships I don't have too much problem with, either secondary works well against them (though I favor Pods for Gunships since it gives them less time to boost away), but I still have problems against Strike Fighters as a Flashfire,with either secondary or just about any laser, Burst included. I've fully upgraded Rapids, Lights and Bursts at this point, and while Bursts have their moments, I still favor Rapids for their consistency and ease of use (easy to aim, big firing arc, less power drain even with Freq Capacitor).

 

I need some way of overcoming their Quick-Charge shields and preventing them from regenerating so quickly, hence why I'm asking about Plasma Warheads. Does the dot do anything to prevent shield regen?

 

Hey Loads in this thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=959219 we explored some stuff we could finally test easily using the Custom games. One of the things we tested was which damage over time effects stop shield regeneration, or rather put the shields into regen delay anyways.

 

While many dots do trigger the shield regeneration delay what makes Quick Charge shield so powerful is that it has innate regeneration during that delay unlike most other shields. This means that even if they do take damage and their delay is triggered, they'll continue regenerating shields just at a slower pace. There is a tier 3 upgrade on Quick charge shield that further enhances this effect by giving them even more regeneration when they're in their delay. Quick charge shield also has a powerful activated ability that not only gives back a decent chunk of shields when activated but improves shields regeneration for 4 seconds in both the delay and no delay regeneration cycles of the ship.

 

What I'm trying to get at with all this text is that while using a utility dot to stop shields from regenerating can be a good choice, it is a very poor choice vs Quick Charge shields since that's exactly what they are good at countering.

 

To actually counter Quick Charge shields what you want is high burst damage, since it's actual maximum shields are much lower then other shields. You want do deal as much damage as you can in a short window.

 

I hope that helps and if you need more information on how shield power works you can find that in my Power management guide here. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=956127

Edited by Drakkolich
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Hey Loads in this thread http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=959219 we explored some stuff we could finally test easily using the Custom games. One of the things we tested was which damage over time effects stop shield regeneration, or rather put the shields into regen delay anyways.

 

While many dots do trigger the shield regeneration delay what makes Quick Charge shield so powerful is that it has innate regeneration during that delay unlike most other shields. This means that even if they do take damage and their delay is triggered, they'll continue regenerating shields just at a slower pace. There is a tier 3 upgrade on Quick charge shield that further enhances this effect by giving them even more regeneration when they're in their delay. Quick charge shield also has a powerful activated ability that not only gives back a decent chunk of shields when activated but improves shields regeneration for 4 seconds in both the delay and no delay regeneration cycles of the ship.

 

What I'm trying to get at with all this text is that while using a utility dot to stop shields from regenerating can be a good choice, it is a very poor choice vs Quick Charge shields since that's exactly what they are good at countering.

 

To actually counter Quick Charge shields what you want is high burst damage, since it's actual maximum shields are much lower then other shields. You want do deal as much damage as you can in a short window.

 

I hope that helps and if you need more information on how shield power works you can find that in my Power management guide here. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=956127

 

That does help, actually. In general, I make it a point to try and avoid Strikes when I can, but everyone and their mother is running them now. I swear, there weren't nearly this many Strikes pre 5.5.

 

I thought it was a question of poor aim, but my accuracy is around 25-28% with Rapids,and 35-40% with Bursts now, so I know I'm lining up shots better than I was a week ago. Flying with Carlose over the last week has honed my skills a bit, I feel. Still, if Quick-Charge negates the dot, then I may as well just stick to Double Volley and get comfortable using Bursts. I find Rapids easier to use, but when the opportunity for a kill opens up, Bursts get it done better.

 

I've tried Lights, and I have them fully upgraded now, but they seem like a weak medium between the spike damage of Bursts and the sustained damage of Rapids, without the armor penetration of either. I switch on and off between Pods and Clusters, but the problem with Pods is that, if our team doesn't have someone with Ammo Probes, I'm gonna run out after two or three engagements. 32 Pods doesn't last long at all, and I can't give up Qyzen Fess on Offense or the Firing Arc passive on Pods to get more ammo; Firing Arc is too important for this weapon.

 

But now I know beyond any doubt to not engage a Strike unless it's busy fighting something else. If I'm the Strikes target, stay the hell away from it.

Edited by Loadsamonie
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You really don't want to take extra firing arc on pods themselves definitely pick the ammo there, you shouldn't even be firing anywhere near the side of the arcs with pods only on centered shots. So that will give you 40 pods as a starting point.

 

While the choice between firing arc or extra ammo on the crew passive is an interesting one, if you aren't an absolutely dedicated dog fighting ship you should probably grab the extra ammo to bring you up to 52 pods over the arc.

 

It sounds like you might be valueing firing arc a little bit too high in your builds. I'm not sure if you know how tracking penalties work on weapons, but basically the further from center you are in your firing arc you get a penalty to your accuracy. Most lasers penalties aren't too bad, but some are high, like Quads and Heavies have high penalties. However Rocket pods and Railguns have really really high penalties, they lose a whopping 5% accuracy every single degree off center you are when you fire them.

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You really don't want to take extra firing arc on pods themselves definitely pick the ammo there, you shouldn't even be firing anywhere near the side of the arcs with pods only on centered shots. So that will give you 40 pods as a starting point.

 

While the choice between firing arc or extra ammo on the crew passive is an interesting one, if you aren't an absolutely dedicated dog fighting ship you should probably grab the extra ammo to bring you up to 52 pods over the arc.

 

It sounds like you might be valueing firing arc a little bit too high in your builds. I'm not sure if you know how tracking penalties work on weapons, but basically the further from center you are in your firing arc you get a penalty to your accuracy. Most lasers penalties aren't too bad, but some are high, like Quads and Heavies have high penalties. However Rocket pods and Railguns have really really high penalties, they lose a whopping 5% accuracy every single degree off center you are when you fire them.

 

 

That's probably my problem then, I'm being too liberal with my Pods and using them when I'm off center too much. I should probably stick to Clusters in that case. 12 Clusters is workable, and since they're lock-based, Firing Arc only helps them.

 

Just had my best game yet, first time I've topped the scoreboard.

 

https://i.imgur.com/bUD45Vf.jpg

 

Using Rapids and Clusters.

 

Still stand by what I said though, I got tilted tonight. Strike Fighters crush my soul as a Flashfire main. Are they designed to be a hard counter to Scouts or something? Or did Scouts just get the nerf stick when Strikes got buffed?

Edited by Loadsamonie
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That's probably my problem then, I'm being too liberal with my Pods and using them when I'm off center too much. I should probably stick to Clusters in that case. 12 Clusters is workable, and since they're lock-based, Firing Arc only helps them.

 

Just had my best game yet, first time I've topped the scoreboard.

 

https://i.imgur.com/bUD45Vf.jpg

 

Using Rapids and Clusters.

 

Still stand by what I said though, I got tilted tonight. Strike Fighters crush my soul as a Flashfire main. Are they designed to be a hard counter to Scouts or something? Or did Scouts just get the nerf stick when Strikes got buffed?

 

That's a great game well done!

 

Scouts have to be near line of sight now to be effective because of how fragile they are to missiles since their evasion defences don't work against them. Because of this they kind of lack a job in Deathmatch and just aren't at the top of the meta anymore, they're not like completely useless or anything they just are trying to do the same job Strikes are they're just worse at it.

 

Where Scouts do shine right now is in Domination, their extra turning and evasion really shines while doing on satellite play.

 

So when you're playing Deathmatch and out in the open it's not the Strikes that are "hard countering" you it's the missiles they wield. While in Domination a good Scout can really mess up Strikes by constantly dealing damage to them with the Strike not being able to ever fire man shots at the Scout. It's important to never try to joust a Strike if you're shooting them and they're shooting you, you almost always lose unless you get a really big string of evasion misses. You want to boost pass them and then out turn them to get behind them and just stay there.

 

If you're planing to "main" the flashfire you're just always going to struggle in Deathmatch the ship just isn't a top contender in that game mode. This doesn't mean you won't get games like the screenshot you posted, it just means when you play against players of equal skill or higher you'll always be at a disadvantage there.

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That's a great game well done!

 

Scouts have to be near line of sight now to be effective because of how fragile they are to missiles since their evasion defences don't work against them. Because of this they kind of lack a job in Deathmatch and just aren't at the top of the meta anymore, they're not like completely useless or anything they just are trying to do the same job Strikes are they're just worse at it.

 

Where Scouts do shine right now is in Domination, their extra turning and evasion really shines while doing on satellite play.

 

So when you're playing Deathmatch and out in the open it's not the Strikes that are "hard countering" you it's the missiles they wield. While in Domination a good Scout can really mess up Strikes by constantly dealing damage to them with the Strike not being able to ever fire man shots at the Scout. It's important to never try to joust a Strike if you're shooting them and they're shooting you, you almost always lose unless you get a really big string of evasion misses. You want to boost pass them and then out turn them to get behind them and just stay there.

 

If you're planing to "main" the flashfire you're just always going to struggle in Deathmatch the ship just isn't a top contender in that game mode. This doesn't mean you won't get games like the screenshot you posted, it just means when you play against players of equal skill or higher you'll always be at a disadvantage there.

 

Okay, cool. I've been slowly progressing a Quarrel and Warcarrier on the side, so if things start going badly in Deathmatch, maybe I'll swap to Bomber and run a nest for my team instead. Or snipe. I've got to learn how to play Gunship eventually.

 

I run Novadive too, it uses Lights and Pods with EMP Field, so that might be an option in Deathmatch as well.

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@Loadsamonie

 

I made some new videos and a couple of the Sting/Flashfire, I thought you might be interested in them since we've been talking so much about that ship in this thread.

 

Here they are:

1:

2:

 

Awesome, thanks. I'll give em a watch later today when I get on.

 

I've actually dropped Novadive and taken up Spearpoint as an alternative. I seriously underestimated the utility of Spearpoint, particularly as a support ship. EMP's with Disable Engine makes for such easy team assists, and having Tensor and Repair Probe helps the team with holding Satellites and reinforcing Bombers Nests. It's not great in a 1v1, but it provides amazing team support. Basically the Scout version of a Clarion, IMO. I've set it to Rapids and EMP, and switched Flashfire to Lights and Pods with extra ammo and Kira Carsen.

 

They still require upgrading, but my current Ship lineup is: Flashfire, Spearpoint, Pike, Quarrel, Warcarrier.

Edited by Loadsamonie
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@Loadsamonie

 

I made some new videos and a couple of the Sting/Flashfire, I thought you might be interested in them since we've been talking so much about that ship in this thread.

 

Here they are:

1:

2:

 

Okay, right off the bat I see you doing something I need to learn, the way you're able to combine turning with strafing to get behind another ship so quickly and easily. I'm still not using strafing the way I should, and instead I'm just pitching and yawing to get behind ships, which takes longer and lets them potentially out-turn me. I've somehow got to get comfortable doing what you do, strafe turning to sharply tail enemy ships. So back to double turning for my Flash.

 

Second, though I know Bursts are overall the best I'm still more of a Rapids user, and I'm switching on and off between Lights and Rapids, seeing which one I perform better with. Rapids usually wins out, but eventually I need to make it a point to get comfortable with Bursts, because nothing else really compares to them.

 

Third, double turning lacks engine power, even with C2N2 (and I typically use Yuun with Lights or Bursts, so even less there), and if you're caught without engine power you're a dead stick. Need to make a mental note to always let engines recharge to full before engaging the next target like you do.

 

So yeah, just by watching that first video I see a number of ways I can improve. I've really got to learn proper strafing. The way you get behind targets so easily is a thing of beauty. Really good stuff there.

 

I may also adopt Power Dive or Barrel Roll instead of Retro, as one of my biggest problems is getting away from Strikes when they're trying to thread me with Protons. Retro lets me break a missile in route, but it doesn't help me get distance from the Strike.

Edited by Loadsamonie
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Really glad the videos were able to help. :)

 

Just wanted to let you know I'm not strafing at all to get behind targets. I'm simply rolling the ship to make sure I'm always pitching, you want to make sure you're never yawing while turning, it's a really big difference in turn speed.

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Really glad the videos were able to help. :)

 

Just wanted to let you know I'm not strafing at all to get behind targets. I'm simply rolling the ship to make sure I'm always pitching, you want to make sure you're never yawing while turning, it's a really big difference in turn speed.

 

Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. Definitely gonna take some practice, but I'm already seeing it help quite a bit with tailing targets.

 

Right now Yuun is the only way I can comfortably use Bursts. C2-N2 is my preferred Engineering crew, but I burn weapon power too quickly if I don't have Yuun or T7. But since I'm mostly fighting around satellites, Engine power isn't a huge problem in Domination. It's a much bigger concern in Team Deathmatch though.

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Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant. Definitely gonna take some practice, but I'm already seeing it help quite a bit with tailing targets.

 

Right now Yuun is the only way I can comfortably use Bursts. C2-N2 is my preferred Engineering crew, but I burn weapon power too quickly if I don't have Yuun or T7. But since I'm mostly fighting around satellites, Engine power isn't a huge problem in Domination. It's a much bigger concern in Team Deathmatch though.

 

Does your mouse support multiple DPI settings? I've found that it's helpful to have one setting for using my BLC/pods scout and another setting for everything else. You definitely want a lower DPI for BLC if you're struggling to aim it still.

 

I'm personally at 1300 for BLC and 1700 for everything else but this may be a bit on the high side for most people.

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Does your mouse support multiple DPI settings? I've found that it's helpful to have one setting for using my BLC/pods scout and another setting for everything else. You definitely want a lower DPI for BLC if you're struggling to aim it still.

 

I'm personally at 1300 for BLC and 1700 for everything else but this may be a bit on the high side for most people.

 

No, my mouse is very basic. As is my lemon PC with two cores and under 3ghz processing power.

 

Strangely enough, GSF runs quite smoothly, pretty much always 60fps outside of Lost Shipyard. But Warzones run at single digits usually.

Edited by Loadsamonie
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No, my mouse is very basic. As is my lemon PC with two cores and under 3ghz processing power.

 

Strangely enough, GSF runs quite smoothly, pretty much always 60fps outside of Lost Shipyard. But Warzones run at single digits usually.

 

Yeah, that sounds about right. GSF performs better in general. Even so, you might want to try tweaking mouse sensitivity a little bit to see if you can find something that works better (if you haven't done so already). You won't be able to swap settings but you might find something that just feels right anyway.

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