Advanced tactics thread: Borg

Share and discuss your gameplay strategies.
posted on July 22nd, 2011, 2:22 am
Last edited by Tryptic on September 18th, 2011, 10:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
This thread is meant to serve 2 purposes: First it will explain a few special abilities and exactly how they operate for advanced players and people who have to know (like me).

Second, it will explain how the ability is meant to be used for the benefit of newer players or those that are new to the race.  If it becomes popular enough, Dom has permission to take any or all of it and put it in the guide somewhere.

I hope to make a thread for each race.  Not all the information is complete so I'd appreciate any suggestions you guys want to make.  It'll make you feel smart, I promise. :D

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Borg
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[[PROTIP: All transmission matrix specials have cooldowns, but they don't have icons.  If you need to see the cooldown of your nanites, boarding, or other ability, select 2 or more borg ships together and hover your mouse over the ability.  It will show the cooldown in your fleet bar.]]

Devastating Attack Damage
Probe: 50
Scube: 80
Adaptor: 120
Assimilator: 160
Sphere: 200
Diamond: 240
Cube: 300
Range: Medium
Energy: 125 for probe, 250 for all other ships.
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Only affects shields.
Devastating Attack is treated as a medium-range weapon, and is not reduced by system value.

Useful for boarding: the torpedo takes a few seconds to travel to the target, so you can hover your mouse over the target and start beaming to it the moment the shields go down.  Otherwise this ability is mostly used for cracking starbases.

Slicer Damage/Energy Cost
Probe: 20/100
Scube: 25/150
Adaptor: 30/150
Assimilator: 50/200
Sphere: 60/200
Diamond: 80/200
Cube: 120/200
Range: Short
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Double damage to small targets.
Slicer is treated like a short-range attack, and is not reduced by system value.

While Devastating Attack is an opener, Slicer is the Borg finisher.  If you have to choose between the two I prefer Slicer.  This is very good if you're using large numbers of diamonds or assims, since it deals extra damage to ships with TWA (like Neghvar) that could be used against you and it is very effective against small targets your torps can't hit (like monsoons).  Since it is always effective, it's okay to put your ships on medium or high weapon autonomy and let Slicer add to their dps.

Adaption
Your adaptor scans its target every 8 seconds with 1 module, 4 seconds with 2 modules.  It then sticks a "turret" on 2 of your nearby ships besides itself and those turrets will fire at the nearest ship that has the same race and range as the scanned target.  The "turret" ignores whatever orders the ship has and just shoots.
Duration: 2 seconds
Damage: 8 every 0.9 seconds (so basically 16 damage per turret, 32 damage per scan)
Range: Equal to the host ship

Double-intercept dode subsystem disable chances/times
life support: 8%, 5 seconds
sensors: 2%, 3 seconds
weapons: 2%, 3 seconds
engines: 2%, 3 seconds

As you can see the ability affects life support most often.  This means that dodes are especially effective in an assim avatar's fleet, and I hope to see this more often now that I've told you guys.  :thumbsup:  While the chances are low, the dode fires quickly and a mass of them can cause serious problems for ships that normally get away (cloakers and fast short-range ships)  Note that both the chance and the disable time is very slightly reduced for targets with good system value, with the cube coming in best at around 1/3 the normal effect.  Also structures and any ship with a passive against long range are immune to the disable.  This includes defiants and other ships with tactical weapon arrays.  Also while the rhienn's phase plate ability says that it blocks adapted photons, it only blocks the disable and not the bonus damage.  So with the 70% bonus and 30% resist dodes deal 12 damage to phase plates instead of their normal 10.

Neural Transceiver
Energy Cost: 300
Range: Medium

I'm not certain about this ability, but I believe it splits 300 energy between all friendly ships within range.  So it's good for a quick top-off for special abilities but nowhere near as powerful as Vinculum.  I think the reason is because it requires only 1 Vinculum module which means you could build intercept/vinculum dodes that are still combat capable and can swarm-feed a group of scubes or a single regen sphere.  Note that a single vinculum module provides faster passive regen than a regeneration module but its damage is lower.

Vinculum
Energy Cost: 500
Range: Short
Target gains 1250 energy.
Can only be used on friendly Borg ships with Holding Beam modules.

Holding-beam spheres and pyramids can become excellent damage soaks when paired with a double-vinculum dode.  You just regenerate, use Vinculum, then regenerate again.  Be very careful, as the range is short and your ships are awkward.  You'll often want to use this ability in the middle of a big fight with tons of damage pouring into the regenerating ship, and if your ship dies because your dode bounced around and didn't reach it in time, that's still your fault.  Plan ahead carefully.

Prime Sphere
The Sphere drains energy from its target constantly.  This affects the primary target only every 5 seconds and lasts for 5 seconds. Romulan ships have a chance to cloak before their energy hits zero, but after that they're screwed.
1 module: 8 energy/second
2 modules: 16 energy/second
3 modules: 24 energy/second

Unless you specifically need a holding beam sphere for Vinculum, you probably want a 3-regen Prime sphere.  Its damage is almost on par with a torpedo sphere, and the energy drain is indispensable against any Romulan ship or any ship that is using its special.  It's your best weapon against enemy spheres as well.  If you are Optimize and you want to build a DPS sphere, add more prime modules instead of the torp module, the defense and system value bonuses are worth it even without the powerful drain.

Nanites subsystem disable chances/times
life support: 3%, 1 second
sensors: 3%, 1 second
weapons: 3%, 1 second
engines: 15%, 2 seconds
Effect happens every 0.2 seconds
deals 1 damage each tick (50 damage total, reduced slightly by system value)
Duration: 10 seconds
Cooldown: 12 seconds
Area: 400 units or 2 grid squares in diameter

If the target is cloaked, there is a 30% chance to disable weapons for 5 seconds instead.  This affects up to 2 ships every second.

Nanites are primarily used for controlling the enemy's movement.  They allow your diamonds to stay out of range and your other ships to chase or run away.  They also double as late-game cloak detect, as the weapon disable will cause a cloaked ship to decloak and it won't be able to shoot.  If you can actually hit a cloaked fleet with nanites, the battle is already over for them.  Nanites are the borg's only area weapon, so they're completely necessary if your enemy is getting a large fleet.  Use them the moment your enemy turns around, and one or two of his ships will drift toward you while the rest turn around.  The cooldown is short so use them often.

Transwarp Drive (Instant teleport)
Detector: 40 energy, 5400 range (long weapon range is 800)
Probe: 125 energy, 3600 range
Scube: 125 energy, 1800 range

Transwarp drive is often overlooked, but the raiding potential is massive.  Detectors can travel halfway across Duel in one jump which turns them into crazy scouts.  Probes also do very well, but despite their short range Scout Cubes are the deadliest with transwarp.  No mining expansion is safe from them.

While the escape mechanic is also incredibly powerful, the lack of borg repair reduces its usefulness.  If you have a federation ally give you a newton or two, you could in theory create an unstoppable blob of death.


[Under Construction]

Thanks to Dominus Noctis for his input.
posted on July 22nd, 2011, 2:24 am
[[[Reserved]]]
posted on July 22nd, 2011, 3:11 am
Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on July 22nd, 2011, 3:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
The range of weapons from Adaption matches the friendly target. Damage if I recall is 8, with appropriate adjustments based on passives.

Nanites' 30% disable only hits cloaked units, not units that have lowered shields. Shots occur every 0.2 seconds for normal disable, and every 1 second for cloak hitter (attempting hitting 2 targets each time).

Devastating Damage is on a 10 second cooldown.
Nanites is on a 12 second cooldown with 10 second duration.

Prime Spheres drain at 40/80/120 over 5 seconds, every 5 seconds.
posted on July 22nd, 2011, 6:45 pm
Awesome, thanks.  Does that mean that the prime sphere's energy drain isn't connected to the beam at all, sort of like EM field and manual targeting?  Was I wrong about multiple beam prime spheres draining multiple targets?
posted on July 23rd, 2011, 3:32 am
Yes, that is not correct - it only affects one unit, and yup, Deflector Dominion is an additional weapon not linked to the beam :).

Adaption lasts for 2 seconds, missed that before.
posted on September 18th, 2011, 4:55 pm
You know something I have always wondered about was how to best utilize the features of a vinculum dode
posted on September 18th, 2011, 9:08 pm
Right, right.  I'll get off my butt and finish this thread now.  :thumbsup:
posted on September 18th, 2011, 11:18 pm
funnystuffpictures wrote:You know something I have always wondered about was how to best utilize the features of a vinculum dode


well if you can sacrifice a bit of dps/staying power you can put 1 vinc module on a combat dode. this will be mainly helpful if you have several scubes/probes around and have transmission. then you can give them ships more energy and hopefully get more use of stuff like slicer and devestating attack. devestating attack is really helpful against feds.

the double vinc dode sacrifices pretty much everything in order to get usefullness. put a holding module and 3 regen on a sphere and you will get a huge tank and the ability to stop damaged ships running away. the dode gives roughly 1000 energy to a sphere.

pyramids are useful in many ways. you can go 4 holding and go absolutely crazy stealing ships. 4 holdings nicks 224 crew and is invincible to specials, taking only 20% damage. it has a def of 90 and it regens pretty fast on its own due to the high system value. plus if the enemy abandons smaller ships with lower crews and goes for bigger ships, the pyramid starting torp will hit more. you can then give this pyramid loads of energy and start building up a fleet of your own for fun. combine with boarding to be super annoying.

you can also throw 2 regens 1 holding and a choice of your own (maybe nanite factor to be annoying or a second holding for higher energy regen). then you get the regen ability and the ability to boost it for more regen.

a diamond is interesting as you can get so many uses out of it. if you want pure specials like nanites then 1 holding and 3 queen modules. the queen modules massively increase system value. then you get 20% less damage/effect from specials, like the enemy wants to hit your diamond with (polaron/pink beam etc). you get the massively useful otc for 90 seconds on each ship u target. u can also hold a damaged ship so it doesnt run. you can spam specials like slicer with ease. the diamond has huge system value. and can use nanites like crazy. and then the dode can give it more energy to blanket an area with nanites. a couple fields of nanites on top of each other will make moving a fleet impossible. and it will chew up small ships and spit them out. your diamond will have so many things it can do with the extra energy from the dode.

if u are feeling weird and dont want a pure dps cube, you could try swapping 1 torp for a regen on your standard tac cube. cube still does massive damage, but now has a little more toughness against specials and lasts a bit longer against diamonds. a standard tac cube gets hurt by loads of nanites and diamonds. the module will let you recharge your cube and use huge amounts of slicer/nanites. if you are wanting to be a rebel you can go for a mage cube, with 3 holding. if you expect your enemy to try nanite spam you to death then 3 holdings and 3 torp modules will be clever. max torp resistance, huge torp damage, huge resistance to nanites, and the ability to hold enemy diamonds in place and force fire for the kill. recharge and repeat.

by the time you can afford spheres/pyramids/diamonds/cubes, you can afford to have the dode sitting behind your fleet not fighting, to avoid losing it. i once sphere danced with 3 spheres (1 hold 3 regen) and 1 double vinca dode. the dode always had enough energy to charge the spheres. the fed player had warpins and intreps and e2s. they never killed a sphere, i just danced at his expansion for minute after minute pissing him off, claiming the odd kill with holding beam, waiting for more energy and eventually he rage quit since getting the kill is so difficult.

imagine a diamond with even moar nanites than now. a handful of diamonds supported by dodes in a team game could really be frustrating, lay down a constant cover of nanites when you attack, the enemy fleet will be easy pickings. coordination is a huge matter in a team game, if you can get a 4 on 1 cos the other fleets are not getting into position due to nanite spam, then you can decimate a fleet fast. and if things are too hot, run while leaving swarms of nanites stacked. no chasing.
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