[Bridger]

Like the title says since the Level Cap increase Cryptic is recognizing a much higher number of deaths in queues, I personal have experienced that PUG's have become nightmarish what is your experience also check out the Twitch-Stream they were talking about it.

They start talking about it at 1:12:24

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/286359457

[Petrarch]

I’ve had good runs and bad runs in recent days. I got absolutely shredded in CE the other night as I was taking too much fire and the same seemed to be happening to the other team members too. Infected has also become a bit more of a slog recently, as folks appear to be getting blown up much more easily now. I had a run last night that was successful, but I had to take the brunt of it in my Connie. Didn’t go boom, but I was hanging on by my fingernails at the end of it as I’d taken that much of a beating.

There’s talk on Reddit that the torpedo damage and warp core explosions may be bugged and incorrectly scaled, but I can’t say for sure myself.

[Mack]

I've just returned from the hiatus and while I was able to hold-up with my Mk IV gear, I did die a couple of times. I was wondering why, didn't guess it had to do with the level progression.

I'm honestly not sure what to make of it, what I'm worried is hopefully this doesn't drive away all the new blood they got in from Victory of Life.

[Sixela]

I've never done HSA but I noticed dying much more on my regular runs in ISA and even CCA with my tank toon and sci which barely ever died on these runs before. I have to say it's really frustrating, but at least the Protomatter console have been of help but it still takes out a console slot I could use for something else. So meh. Hopefully they solve that soon.

[Seetherius]

In my egoistic view this makes me happy as I feel like more commanding a hero ship that doesn't get blasted by a random beam attack or torpedo. Like it happens with one of the excelsior class ships.

[Scarlett]

I've not experienced this at all. I mean, I get popped on occasion but not more than usual. In my opinion, I want to say the issue is more about PEBKAC than the system itself, but I'm no expert.

And that pics hurts in the jangles.

[Dark]

I've blown up a lot more, at least 3/4ths from being too close to a warp core breach. So that's annoying.

Those swarmers hurt, too. It's a real DPS check on Swarm Advanced at the beginning. If you can't nuke that first giant cloud, people start to drop.

[Morris]

I agree that there has been an increase in getting popped, especially in PUGs, but I think that a majority of the increased dying is the result of an influx of fresh meat (new, less optimally equipped, Jem'Hadar characters) and reliance on piloting techniques established before the level increase. Because of that increase, NPCs deliver higher crits in general, and higher spike dmg from core breaches. Where we use to be able to hug our prey until they popped, that now results in severe damage to us, even with brace for impact and high resists. Recovering from that is a hit or miss proposition, especially in a weaker PUG, where you may be the focus of all the aggro! There is also the occasional one shot out of nowhere, but after adjusting my piloting, things seem more reasonable. I still die more often than I use to, but not like I was before my adjustments. My DPS has also been getting higher, not accounting for the Hurq Swarmer Beacon (super OP!), by adjusting my piloting and timings of my abilities. On a side note, those Hurq Swarmer Beacon pets do more DPS in their brief appearances than my dedicated hanger pets do! An average individual hanger pet of mine will do 2-3K DPS, where individual Hurq Swarmer pets can do over 4K, especially if I time their release properly! Pets generally account for about 25K DPS for me...with Hurq Swarmer Beacon pets, I've gotten as much as 57K DPS from my pets category! I'm guessing that there will be a nerf incoming on those! I'm not suggesting that there isn't something wrong that Cryptic needs to correct with NPC DPS in general, as that may be the case. I am suggesting that by adapting to the situation as it is, I have become a better pilot, and my DPS has gotten higher! With all of that being said, I was in a couple of ISA PUGs last night with what turned out to be a couple of heavy hitters. All 3 of us ended with over 100K DPS and 0 team deaths. A half hour later, I queued up and was teamed with those same 2 heavy hitters. Even with all of that DPS, we were all getting popped like crazy...some of us twice, everyone on the team at least once! It was insane! This has not been my usual experience since adjusting to the higher level cap, getting popped so much as a group, especially with that much DPS, but I suppose that even the NPCs can get lucky sometimes! I'm also guessing that there was just so much team DPS that there was a literal minefield of warp core breaches around the team. We were basically taking ourselves out! You never know what you're getting into when you PUG, and I suspect that we were all taking higher risks, recognizing how powerful a team we were part of...everyone wanted to finish on top! It is rare for there to be more than one death by anyone on my team in most of my PUG runs these days, even really bad PUGs, so last night's runs stood out to me! I've already written a book, but one more note. My main character is a beam boat engineer captain. I imagine that cannon boat tactical captains would be more severely affected by how NPCs are behaving now, with a large part of cannon boat tactical DPS being dependent on parking yourself close to your prey until it's dead. Being free to keep moving and alternate facings with the prey is very helpful to my survival. That last part is just speculation on my part. I don't normally play tactical, and when I do, it's usually in a beam boat. I've been playing around with a cannon build with my Jem'Hadar character, but I'm really not good, or comfortable with it. Now, as every book should conclude...THE END

[Raz Beraht]

I KNEW I wasn't CRAZY!!!

I started a thread about blowing up a lot when I came back for VIL, queues, borg red alerts, it all makes sense to me now. I've also always been terrible at avoiding core breaches. I knew the higher level would result in harder opponents but I never thought about the crits going critical!

[Kuret'iklan]

I tend to stay far back and avoid the warp core breeches and still have been getting popped far more than normal.

[Heyallo]

I've noticed since ViL launch I die waaaaaay more now =(

[aceman67]

Makes me remember the good old days when STO first came out and you would be decimated by groups of mobs with alpha strikes, even at low levels, because the game was horribly unbalanced.

-- snip --

You make some good points, but paragraphs are a thing, that was pretty hard to read.

[WelshAvenger]

So I guess my first question would be, "why does every single ship in the game have to have a warp core breach when it dies?" It's certainly not canon or there'd never be wreckage for other ships to find in episodes. Maybe make 1 in 4 a warp core breach and make it known that if you're still within 2km of that, you will get popped because it's a massive antimatter explosion and no amount of armour or shields should protect you?

[Generator]

I feel like most of my "additional" deaths have been of the warp-core-breach variety. It used to be, if you screwed up on that front, it felt like you put your hand on the coffee pot. Now it feels like you put your hand down the garbage disposal.

[Marcel]

It actually reminds me of the pre delta rising times where my huge dreadnought ships are carrying the team to victory which i used to love.
Of course it only works in normal and advanced.