It's a genuine question.

On the one hand, I totally get where you're coming from. People complain about new releases if they aren't some meta-breaking, genocidal, every-BOff-station-is-an-Uncon-trigger, game changer. DPS is rising exponentially, and the game keeps breaking because players are killing things faster and faster. So, some nerfs can be good!

But the funny thing is, if you're so concerned about game-breaking items, why not nerf them prior to releasing them? It's really odd how inconsistent the releases are. Some of the consoles and traits the dev team releases are so unoriginal and forgettable that they never see the light of day once they're unlocked. But then, in the very next ship, bundle, or event reward, they release a console or trait that can single-handedly add 100k DPS. You've already covered some on your nerflist "Watchlist," but that doesn't even begin to cover all the overpowered consoles and traits that you've released recently and not so recently. Here are some not on your list:

• You Are Dismissed
• Broadside Beam Support
• Broadside Combat Module
• Micro-Quantum Torp Phalanx Array

And on and on. Each of the above items are capable of around 100K DPS each. I'm not necessarily saying you should place these on your list--in fact, I think you shouldn't, because it would probably make a lot of people angry. What I am saying is that you guys decided to release all these overpowered items. This means two possible things: 1) the dev team didn't properly test the items prior to release, or 2) they knew how game-breaking they were and decided to move ahead anyways.

In the former case, I'd be rather flabbergasted, as you guys quite literally make the game. Take the Empersa's lance, for example. It was so powerful, it needed a whole suite of nerfs and a concurrent STO news post. Please tell me: how is it possible that the STO team designs, builds, and animates a weapon capable of dealing tens of millions in single-shot damage, and doesn't know how powerful it is? I'd think that at the very least, one of the devs has a parse with which they can see the damage numbers. If they didn't know the Empersa's lance was so powerful, they were either too lazy or too underpaid to do real testing on normal, advanced, and elite queues. If it's the latter, that's fine! Ask CasualSAB or Stu1701 to test it for you!

In the latter case, that means...you guys are Ferengis! Congratulations!

Entire build archetypes rely on traits like Boimler, and that trait was released years ago. Why tear Boimler down now, long after its release? And as others have pointed out, if you care so much about having healthy competition between items, why not buff the mountain of old items that have no use in today's STO environment?

I believe the answer is pretty clear. It seems to me that these nerfs are driven largely by profit. You nerf the newer stuff because it encourages people to move to the newest stuff, but buffing old stuff would be a waste of time, money, and effort. In all honesty, the post has "We want you to spend more money on our new releases instead of using the previous BIS stuff!" written all over it. I don't think that in all of these cases, the dev team didn't know how powerful their new ships, traits, and consoles were. They likely knew and decided to release them anyways. People invest money in the game to get the BIS slot fresh releases, and now it looks like these things will be...no longer BIS. These don't seem like very faithful business practices to me; as someone on Discord said in response to the Watchlist, "that's basically theft."

Why not properly test your items before you release them? And why not, instead of releasing a handful of universe-shattering consoles and a dump of garbage ones, make a bunch of just...really solid ones? Ones that will diversify STO's build schemes and, for example, make DEWSci or DEWTorp more viable? I think this is a reasonable ground between nerfing our money away and allowing the unchecked growth of DPS.

I'm not saying you should stop baiting people with OP items, and then announcing their nerfs a year, or two, or three after release. After all, a game about Star Trek should totally engage in exploitative Ferengi practices like this...

Right?

Whenever I solo ISE, it's a bit of tossup. Usually, my first activation of universal consoles will take out ~70% of the first cube's health, and then I struggle to finish the job and run out of time. I rarely get past that first hurdle.

Today, the first cube oddly sat around 60% or 70% until the last 40 seconds, at which point I annihilated it and the nearly dead assimilators. It was the best I'd ever done against the first group. You can see in the second image how I peaked around 1M DPS, averaged out to around 650K at 100s, and then gradually tapered off from then on, which is why my overall DPS turned out so low. The portion in which I destroy the Gateway, probes, spheres, and second cube, is always a challenge, and I typically get killed at least once. My solo ISE runs tend to sit around 400K-500K DPS. At 387K, this was my lowest-DPS successful ISE run ever.

I'm not sure why this happened. My best guess is that I swapped Temporal Disorder and Emit Unstable Warp Bubble I (EUWB I) for You Are Dismissed and Reverse Shield Polarity I, increasing my AoE (and overall) DPS at the expense of my single target DPS. Although You Are Dismissed is undoubtedly powerful, I've only gotten half of the 80K+ DPS others are mysteriously achieving with that console. Temporal Disorder is a significant surivability aid and, very rarely, can hit 40k DPS when used with consoles like FPNA and Coordinated Engagement Solution. Unfortunately, not having DPRM or powerful healing DOffs like Agent Nerul means that I've had to experiment extensively with less efficient survivability alternatives, which detracts from the build space that is available to DPS boosts.

I'm considering swapping to EUWB I and Adaptive Emergency Systems for more Uncon potential, survivability, and damage buffs. Is there another way I can rearrange my build to make it more efficient and powerful, all while maintaining self sufficiency?

Remember when Riker made the Titan throw a big rock at the Shrike? (You can find it at 2:02 in this video.)

Sure, the Shrike surviving the impact with no visible structural damage, even with all its sharp, tapered points, was impressive. But the rock bounced off with no visible damage, either.

Remember when Kit, Draco, Melodie, Mico, Lily, and Kenji were released? At the time, these brawlers were considered toxic and broken. We could tell the design team was running out of ideas. Mico, for example, was just a Z-axis Mortis with a super that made him untouchable. Lily's gadget was just a mini Cordelius super that provided a free getaway.

Damian

I returned to Brawl Stars after a year away from its toxicity, and this...this is something new. Don't get me wrong--I'm having a lot of fun playing again. But the old frustrations are back, too. I look at Damian, and I see a pile of slop. He's lazy, he's unoriginal, and he's the most overpowered brawler to have ever disgraced my screen. ChatGPT could have done a better job of designing a brawler. There is no coherence to his abilities. His main attacks are just El Primo plagiarism with a little fire twist. His super does too much--it traps enemies in, keeps enemies out, controls a HUGE area, and deals lots of damage. His super jump, for some reason, has a greater range than the majority of artillery brawlers. Why, devs, would you make his super AOE huge and make it so easy to land it at the same time?

His gadgets make him a healer and Sprout knockoff. His first star power allows him to stun enemies repeatedly. His second star power adds more fire to his already massive damage output. His unload speed and super cycling rate are obnoxious. Damian is a tank, healer, and assassin all rolled into one. It's never been this obvious that the devs are reaching for ideas, so they just smashed all the other brawlers together in some terrible amalgamation. Here are all the ways he needs to be nerfed:

• Damage nerf
• Idk why tf he has so many passives. Just delete some of them.
• Probably nerf his health.
• Cut his super cycling rate.
• His super jump should reach half as far.
• His super AOE should be 3/4 the size or less.

Even after all these nerfs, he'lls probably still be broken.

Najia

Najia is the new addiction of lazy and/or unskilled players on open maps. Giving them an aimbot is already bad enough. But now, her range is greater than the snipers'? At most***,*** her range should be like Squeak's, Finx's, or Gene's. I'd even be okay with it if her range equaled a sniper's! But as we people complain in this post, her range is greater than Piper's and close to Mandy's. Plus, her super is an AOE poison nuke, with three snakes dealing up to 8200 damage. Of course, she can throw it super far, too. She makes Dynamike's super look warm and huggable.

Nerfs for Najia:

• Reduce her primary range by at least two to three tiles
• Slash her secondary damage
• Reduce her throwing range for her super

Mina

The third in the holy trifecta of BS b.s. was sort of up for grabs, but I chose Mina. I know Mina is supposedly clunky, but her damage output is too high nonetheless. My suggestion for Mina is simple: reduce her damage output. Her gadget is very powerful, but she's rare to see anyways, so it's not too problematic.

Yes, I know "starter" or "budget" carrier builds aren't exactly a thing, but I'd like to try building a mixed DEW/single-hangar carrier platform on the Legendary Akira, kind of like this build from Tilor on STOBetter. Flying the Akira with Type 7's has been fun, but now I want to do something that focuses more on the pets. I've crafted some Hangar Craft Power Transmission consoles, and I have some other pet boosting stuff (FPNA, Coordinated Engagement Solutions, Swarmer Matrix, Repurposed Cargo Bay Hangar, etc.) I only have 66 million EC, so I need to decide carefully for personal traits. If I can only afford one at the moment, which personal trait should I buy first? I was thinking about Wing Commander or Independent Wingmate (I'm just short of affording both).

As for the pets, I'm not sure what to use. I was thinking of slotting Peregrines, Delta Flyers, or Valkyries, but I'd like to hear other recommendations (that could fit in with this Starfleet theme).

I do not have SAD right now, so Coordinated Assault will be my pet weapon buff.