By Angry Black Man
Breaking the Planet is a 5-20 person Fleet Action. It offers both Dilithium and gear for completion. First place (per-team; 4 teams of 5 can play and 4 people can get first place) gets 2 Level Appropriate Very Rare (Purple) Ground Gear items and 960 Dilithium. That alone should be an incentive to do this fun map.(Aside from taunting other non 8-Ballers with rape):
Since you are reading this, you are obviously familiar with the mission. Before we jump right in, there's a couple of mantras I want you to remember: viualize a large black drill-Sergent type man man in front of you shouting...
ABM: "Ensign, when you are 'Breaking the planet', what are the three things to remember?!?!?!?"
RECRUIT: "Crush the enemy, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women?!?!?!"
ABM "BESIDES that, ensign!!!"
RECRUIT: "Always keep moving!!!! Crit is KING and always res your teammates, SIR!!!"
Fewer things are ever more true. Anyhow, let's jump in!!!
LOADOUT:
This is important. I will go over this for each separate division. The good thing about this fleet action is that we know what we're up against. Hence, we can prepare accordingly.
Regardless of division/specialty, I suggest the following items for your loadout:
SHIELDS:
- Any shield with a [Dis] modifier (Resistance to disruptor weapons).
- Any shield that offers resistance to ALL energy weapons is also good, but not as efficient. (The exception being the MK XII Tholian Lattice Shield).
If you don't have one, just grab the Jem Hadar shield from the Dominion mission chain. It's a good shield, it's part of a set and has the [Dis] modifier, and most importantly, it's free.
ARMOR:
This is also important. I have run this mission a gajillion times and this is where a loadout may seem counter-intuitive, but it's not. Let's have a look. (I'll explain below):
Integrated targeting Armor (Preferably Fleet versions)
Chronodynamic Armor
MACO Combat Armor
Jem Hadar Armor (an exception to the rule simply because it's free and gels with the above shield)
These are the ones you want. No others. Period. Let me explain: unlike other Fleet Actions (e.g. Romulan Temple (Big Dig) and many of the Borg missions), BtP is not a long, drawn out fight in its' current version. That is to say, with so much focus fire going on, enemies generally are killed quickly, hence you will not need the additional protections that Energy Dampening and Pollyalloy Weave offer. The key here is increased Critical Hit Damage [CritD] and Critical Hit Chance [CritH] that the above armors offer. In Space combat, it isn't as important, but in ground combat, it is EVERYTHING. In fleet actions, even more so, as it buffs DPS, and in the end, your score. Which leads me to...
WEAPONS:
I will list the weapons in order of preference:
Slot 1:
- Any Pulsewave Assault except the KHG/KHG Adapted (It's secondary fire isn't optimized for this mission - however if you need it for the set bonus, do so). Pulsewaves have a killer secondary that offer a 50% chance of kickback which can buy you some respite from particular baddies AND can be used to knock them into lava (so much fun...and hilarious, too!).
- Dual Pistols, as their secondary bolt spray has an inherent chance to expose and offers some crowd control like the pulsewave. If you get a set with the [KB3] modifier, it can help.
Slot2:
Any Exploit weapon (preferably a Split Beam rifle...I'll explain later). As a brief aside, let's talk about procs; I would suggest in this order of import (I will explain):
1) Antiproton -
I put this on top because AP is the ONLY damage type that relies upon YOUR CritH chance over the weapons' CritH chance to get the proc. This reason alone makes it situationaly superior to most. (Your personal CritH score is likely higher than 2.5%...)
2) Tetryon -
I put this second because of certain baddies you see that REALLY want their shields to be taken down quickly. It is a close second to:
3) Polaron -
This is close to second simple because of those mutherfucking Swordmasters and Artillery Spotters (which are effectively Dahar Masters with different names). Since these baddies are often the culprits of team wipes, a Polaron proc can give you needed breathing space to get a heal/shield recharge going. Don't get too close to them though; they will carve out your sphincter with a bat'Leth if you are next to them while the proc is running. (Same goes for Swordmasters)
4) Phaser -
First verse, same as the first - this is similar to the Polaron proc insofar as it has a chance to stun and slow. That said, the proc is so weak in this particular case that it holds little value.
5) Plasma -
This offers a decent DOT, but enemies get killed so quick it may be of limited value. However, if you get a Pulsewave with [CritH] [CritD]x2, there could be some utility.
6) Disruptor -
In space, it's a great weapon; in BtP, not so much. The reasoning here is the -10 to Defense is of limited value since the baddies die so quick.
7) Hybrid Types (I personally feel losing a CritH or CritD modifier for the *chance* of a proc is not worth it. IF you do chose one, I strongly encourage ones with CritH AND CritD or at least CritDx2). Also, if you do, stick with a MK XII; they aren't too expensive on the exchange.
Anyhow, lets get away from procs and get back to weapon types...
- Any Split Beam Rifle of your choice: "Why not a sniper rifle?" you ask? Simply because the split beam's secondary exploit attack activates MUCH faster than any sniper rifle and high density beam rifles. This is important if you want to take advantage of exposes, which are key when dealing with Artillery Spotters and Swordmasters. The exceptions to this would be:
- Ghostbuster Gun!: It's secondary is an exploit weapon and it crits like a MoFo and has minimal warm-up time. It also has the benefit of chaining several local baddies, which can come in handy when dealing with Targ Handlers and their spawn. Be warned though that you will get aggroed after using its secondary.
or
- Federation Type 3 Phaser Rifle: It's secondary is also an exploit weapon with the Nadion burst which acts as a poor man's [KB2] with an additional amount of [AoE]. It also activates quickly with minimal warm up time.
Allow me to clarify - I'm not saying sniper rifles and the like won't work - I have just found that in my experience, the minimal amount of loss in DPS from not using those types is easily made up by using something with minimal warm up. All too often, by the time you line up your shot the target is dead or the expose is gone, where this weapon really shines.
Well, that's our discussion for Weapons. In the next post, we'll discuss kits for the various classes and the reasons why they are preferable. Please PLEASE feel free to give additional input on strategies and tips that work for you.
-ABM (Feesh, etc)
