Mantis ships really need a nerf

[Ourosboros]

So not only do they have strong ships, but they have strong racial (insane combat damage) AND conviniently enough they also have *drumroll* teleport.

Almost all my deaths are due to Mantis bombers, there just doesent seem to be a way to counter them effectively even if you build your ship around countering them specifically.

[Dralax]

After reading the title and the first paragraph I thought you were talking about Mantis B as that one is in fact OP.

AI controlled Mantis ships are 100% fine. Just get doors 2/3. What needs a heavy nerf are the events that make you fight a Mantis ships and at the same time spawn 3-4 boarders.

[Dontmindme]

In a perfect world, I think the fix would be to nerf Mantis damage down to 150% from 200%. This would put them on par with Rockmen (150% health, normal damage). It would lessen somewhat the impact of the 5 Mantis boarding party while at the same time making player teleport boarding a little more difficult (or less OP as some have suggested it is).

[cicobuff]

In a perfectly balanced game, there is only 1 ship type, 1 weapon type and 1 way to win only. This thing about OP is getting a bit silly. FTL is not a pvp game where it pits players against one another using different ships.

The most balanced game would thus be rock sissors paper. But FTL is a much better game imo.

[Ourosboros]

Balance isnt only an issue restricted to pvp.

If they made a mob in an rpg that did 1000 damage and you had 1hp, and there was no way around - that is poor balance aswell

5 mantis boarding your 3 engi crew while rockets takes out your shield... how to counter that, really?

[cicobuff]

Are u talking about the AI?

In my encounters with mantis ships they tend to be lower powered in weapons. Even if they have a leto (fastest missile) on board even if that hits your shield, it'll take out 1 bubble.

Almost every ship will allow you to employ the standard vent vs the mantis by the time the first salvo is exchanged.

Unless you had built a very silly build like the "OP" teleport on the torus and didn't upgrade your shields, weapons and doors by the time you reached sector 3/4, I don't see why 5 mantises will give that much problems.

the key to venting is to do it 1 room at a time if u can. Make them spend as much time in the vacuum breaking down the doors as possible. Remember to turn off oxygen.

So yea, the mantis ship is not OP. Especially when the AI uses it.

[hybridfive]

In a perfectly balanced game, there is only 1 ship type, 1 weapon type and 1 way to win only.

That's not an acceptable definition of the word "balance." The only time the word "balance" can apply to a single object is if that object has physical mass, weight, and therefore an equilibrium. In all other cases, the word "balance" is a comparative statement between two items in order to find relative equality.

On topic, there are many, many ways to counter Mantis ships and boarding parties.

1) Doors 2 (already mentioned)
2) Your own Mantis, using the fact that they can gain experience
3) Your own teleporter, which should divert the boarders' attention UNLESS you teleport into their teleporter room
4) A quick-charging missile aimed at their teleporter room
5) Learning how to move and position your own crew

[UltraMantis]

...In my encounters with mantis ships they tend to be lower powered in weapons...

Yep, and they send their crew to get slaughtered on your ship leaving them ripe for a counter-attack. Clicking on the Mantis Controlled/Homeworld sectors happens before i even see what the other sector was. That's how much i love going there.

The ships are not exactly weak, but they tend to have fewer high powered weapons, because some of their power goes to the teleporter. There's every chance that they land a nice mix of mid powered guns though. But not having enough crew to man stations and board at the same time usually makes them weak. At worst they will force me to abandon stations myself and run to the medbay. If i don't have cloaking at this stage, i'll probably take some damage as i lose focus.

I'd rather mix it up with Mantis than Slugs/Zoltan anytime, or even Rock/Engi.

As for countering 5 Mantis boarders, you dont counter it, you rough it out. Somebody will die but most of the crew will live. You dont get boarded by 5 Mantis in sector 1, so barring any extremly bad luck you should have at least 3 people to fight with. And if you don't care enough to upgrade your medbay to withstand an assault, you should not be surprised when the game throws "uncounterable" situations at you. As the hint message says, Shields and Weapons are all very well but don't neglect your subsystems or their usefullnes.

And again, boarders go for systems, not your crew. Let them break stuff and go heal up for round two. What's that? They landed in the Medbay? Well... they do that sometimes. Good thing you upgraded.

[cicobuff]

UltraMantis! We need you to get rid of the evil spammers.

[UltraMantis]

Offending post destroyed. Thanks for the report.