Any tips for "Gravity kills" ?

You said it yourself, you were the only person gathering particles. That's the problem. You, sir or madam, were doing the right thing. Your team failed you. If you run particles in Gravity Kills, every effort of every other teammate should be to help you, not kill the enemy. Tactics, not DPS, win this TFO.

The TFO is fine. It's one of my favourites. I personally think it's one of the few examples of when all the players are, to put it bluntly, wrong. The players are the problem.

And gravwell is excellent on both Tzentkethi TFOs. That so many people keeping telling others to not use it only highlights just how far off the mark their priorities are. In Both Gravity Kills and Tzentkethi Front, the enemy ships don't have to be killed, so who gives a rat's ass about the buff? Your primary objective should either be to ferry bombs/particles, or help those that do. You don't need to rack up kills as they endlessly respawn anyway. They do, however, need to be MOVED out of the way, and that is a lot easier and faster than trying to kill them all.

And yet too many times I've seen some tac-captain cannon Jem'hadar ship screeching in chat about gravwells while they refuse to use tab keys, practice good target selection, or even bother to check on their teammates and how they are doing. No, instead when confronted with a gravwell they continue to flail impotently at the enemy with mass DPS that gets resisted, completely oblivious to how the gravwell pulled the lizards out of position and away from the players who are doing the TRULY important work of ferrying particles/bombs. They act like glory-seeking head-hunters, unwilling to lock on to anything that isn't some big prestigious target. And now, they, too, are out of position and not helping anyone and refusing to acknowledge that fact.

Gravwell is excellent for Gravity Kills, great for focusing the lizard fleet on one point so that the starbase blocks their LOS to your particle gathering teammates, or focusing them in front of you in preparation for tractor repulsors or a graviton displacer run into the black hole. Gravwell will gather them in one small place, allowing your tractor repulsors or graviton displacer to send them all off in the same-ish direction. Preferably away from the starbases, where your friends who do the thankless task of gathering particles/bombs can finally do their very important work unmolested.

The entire focus of every team member in gravity kills should to to gather particles or distract the enemy from locking on to those that do, up to and including taking an injury. It's the fastest way to do the TFO. Any ships remaining after the last starbase is destroyed fade/warp out, leaving only the dreadnought group. You don't need to kill anything unless the pressure gets too great. If the gravwells and tractor beams do their job, too many of the lizards will get corralled into a position of irrelevancy or sucked into the black hole for that to happen.

My tips are this. Gather particles. If you are not gathering particles, defend the Jupiter. If you are not doing either, then look around and fire on any ship that so much as throws a cannon shot at your teammates ferrying the particles. Distract, tank, absorb the attention. Ride as much threat as you can. Give your teammates a fighting chance of discretely getting those particles and being able to use full-impulse for the return run. If you are a science ship, then gravwell the hell out of the enemy, gather them in one place, then use tractor repulsors or graviton displacer to send them all packing in one direction AWAY from the action or into the black hole. Use another Gravwell to suck them all even further in that direction, continually moving the point of aggregation farther and farther away. This is also a great way to attract agro, and if the tzentkethi are attacking you, they aren't attacking particle runners and depriving them of full impulse and killing them as they return.

You don't need to kill the enemy fleets except at beginning and end. You need to corral them. DPSers do their best work not hunting for heads and kills, but by running interference between the jupiter and starbase, attracting attention or destroying any ships that escape science vessel's black-hole runs. Not trying to out DPS the whole fleet en-mass, which so many try to do.

If you're making particle runs, use the briefing time at the beginning of the mission to slot some Emergency Power to Engines or Aux Power to Inertial Dampeners in your BOFF slots. You're going to need it. Even if your teammates are trying their best to help you, even if they are doing a GREAT job, some lizards will always get though. Those two BOFF abilities will aid you when you can't use full-impulse.

But whatever you do, just remember that the particle gatherer is numero uno on your list of priorities. Anyone takes a shot at them, you should be on that enemy like white on rice.

As for the the issues with gathering and delivering the particles.... that's an STO problem more than a Gravity Kills problem. The interface is more than a little wonky on more than one TFO. Anyone who has tried targeting a portal in Gateway to Gre'Thor can sympathize.

/r/sto Thread