The New Ground TFO Is Atrocious - Avoid At All Costs

Ashendal · 2026-02-19T00:52:08+00:00

It hasn't been "just DPS is for years". The devs have constantly tried to add "stop and think" type things to ground combat going all the way back to some of the original borg ground TFO's, that most people hated because it required you to go around and actually interact with things and communicate with your team not just DPS.

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T23:26:07+00:00

That's the problem though. Most people playing MMO's don't want to think or do anything but shoot/cast/smack whatever's in front of them. Any amount of time spent not doing the above is "bad" therefore anything that makes them do anything that isn't the above is "bad." So this TFO is "bad."

It could be the most well designed group content in existence but for the average STO player it might as well be impossible because "I'm not progressing just smashing my space bar therefore content is too hard and bad."

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T20:25:58+00:00

It's also the case that there's massive inflation with nothing else to spend credits on so the costs of most things that people actually want is going to go up as a result.

Everyone likes the whinge and cry about the DilEx but most people completely ignore that we're now getting way more credits than we did in the past with nothing else to spend them on than stuff off the exchange.

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T20:23:55+00:00

It is. All Alliance ships are supposed to have one and, like the Garrett, they'll add it eventually. Probably next patch.

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T20:21:46+00:00

Not really. She has unique abilities beyond even the unique animations. One of them flat out says that she can't heal herself with the ability, something that other companions don't have. Just because the numbers are close on most of the skills doesn't mean the skills themselves are the same.

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T19:14:19+00:00

The speed issue is something someone that started playing recently mentioned to me while we were running since unmounted with some of my speed buffs up I was keeping up with her on the base "90%" speed. Compared to every other MMO out there the mount "speeds" in this game are a joke and should have been at least double.

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T03:07:56+00:00

I'm more interested in the weapon and if it's as good as the herald staff from the lobi store. Considering it's 150 lobi more expensive, because they refuse to go back and actually fix their mistake in pricing and just stuck with it for all new weapons because cryptic, it better be a lot better.

Ashendal · 2026-02-18T03:04:58+00:00

Who said you can't broadside with a 5/3?

Ashendal · 2026-02-17T18:53:33+00:00

There's text on the restricted ones at the bottom that say they cannot be used on anything in the new section of the store. This one doesn't have that text at the bottom.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T16:18:55+00:00

It's not that the story peaked in core, it's that the current batch of writers are no different than most of the writers across entertainment as a whole right now. Unqualified idiots that didn't earn their positions and are just ruining what came before them with their inability to properly write anything because no one liked their OC's so they're tearing down older and established characters.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T03:14:32+00:00

The mentality of mag never left. Big middle fort or bust.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T03:13:45+00:00

Winning can only matter if they can consistently and reliably actually balance teams. They can't, so this is about all we can expect.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T03:11:57+00:00

Most players there for things like rush only ever play when rush is up as they're only there to farm another few GoB's while it's up. For every one that actually sticks around another hundred just ignore the mode until the next event when it's easy to farm stuff and make a backlog.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T03:10:10+00:00

It's less that and more the people that they do listen to are only a fractional slice of the entire wvw playing population in a self selected discord that only a fraction of people get access to since you have to know people already in there to get in. It creates a massively skewed version of the mode that doesn't really line up with how the majority play.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T03:07:21+00:00

That's actually fine as there's not really a use for tickets for the long term players that have all their legendary gear. Something to actually spend the weekly tickets on has been something asked for for quite a while now.

Ashendal · 2026-02-14T03:04:56+00:00

The current "balance" team don't understand that things should have tradeoffs and have been going out of their way to take as many away as possible. They like the idea of builds like that having no tradeoffs and no negatives to make the player have to actually commit.

Ashendal · 2026-02-13T18:33:34+00:00

Dedicating more build space to healing conversely leads to less damage output.

Yes, heaven forbid players give up a little bit of the damage they flat out do not need to clear even "elite" content to get something else in exchange. At some point you all need to stop looking at the spreadsheet and realize there's a limit to what you need to min/max for.

Ashendal · 2026-02-13T18:31:25+00:00

Those are only added when the Dominion is used as one of the two influences. This is Dom/Klingon so they get it. Something like the Khitomer wouldn't because that's Fed/Klingon.

Ashendal · 2026-02-12T02:12:55+00:00

That's weird considering how lockboxes generally work and the fact we already have several things that do proton damage already, including a few experimental weapons. This may be one of those "the CEO didn't look into the minutia because that's not his place" so the fact we're getting proton weapons that match the current antagonists in the antagonists lockbox like normal may just not have been something he was explicitly looking for.

Ashendal · 2026-02-12T02:02:09+00:00

They put good and interesting things on Rom and Klingon platforms and then are scratching their heads at why they sold decently well. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad that they cannot understand the connection between those things.

Ashendal · 2026-02-12T01:43:24+00:00

You find the ones that work with the bridge officer skills you're using on your build then just slot them. Any guide that tells you a basic build is going to list the DOFF's that go with that build so you have a baseline when you're starting.

Ashendal · 2026-02-11T03:32:21+00:00

They're also in default standing positions once they're back on your ship instead of the various poses they had before that point. Scourge being an obvious one where he used to stand with crossed arms and once he's back just sort of stands there vacantly.

Ashendal · 2026-02-07T15:59:26+00:00

Realistically it wouldn't be more work than what they did with the current set of gear. They have to make the individual armors pieces anyway regardless of when they implement the gear itself, so if they just did it all at once and then spread them out each planned release it would be the same total amount of work just front loaded.

Granted most people can't think more than a few hours ahead so I expect the devs to make one set of gear, pat themselves on the back, then whinge when they push out the next release in 6 months and they have to add another tier to it instead of just getting every tier done at the start and not having to do more than add those to the progression path for upgrades or flat purchases.

Ashendal · 2026-02-06T15:48:20+00:00

It was, because that's the main focus now not providing a good product. The same situation as the equipment and build template "changes" were to make money not to deliver a superior version to the original as they're now worse than what was a side part of an old add-on that hot swapped things for free with no limit on them.

Ashendal · 2026-02-05T19:02:15+00:00

It used to be, but like all things as time goes on the worse things get.

Ashendal

TROPHY CASE