test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Vanguard carrier is awesome - what pets?

jaephjaeph Member Posts: 77 Arc User
Returning player. I purchased the vanguard carrier during the sale, and couldn't be happier. I used to love my mirror vo'quv back in the day. :-)

Before I start tossing dilithium at the purple jem'hadar pets, are there any others I should consider?

Comments

  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    Honestly, I don't have solid DPS numbers right now.. but I think that outside of maybe Elite Romulan Drones which are locked to Romulans or the Kelvin Pods locked to the Vengeance.. that the Jem'Hadar pets are probably the best you can get.

    I have the Vanguard Dreadnought and upgraded to the Elite Jem Hadar Gunboats and man those things rip. The Elites have Fire At Will III which is insanely powerful for pets. Overall though, if you're looking for damage you want fighters over slow moving frigates since all of those seem to have cannons. There is nothing wrong with Cannons, but the AI is terrible with keeping them on target. You want something that uses beams primarily like the Jem Gunboats.

    I would say the next step down would be Elite Swarmers, but I would honestly go with the Gunboats. They're pretty great. I'll see if I can find any solid DPS numbers for them.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
    edited June 2018
    Using the Vanguard Carrier (not Dreadnought) the pets parsed at 22K today on a brand new jemvg tac (without any fleet or rep gear) and 28K on a better set up jemvg science toon but that parse may have included photonic fleet with pets or affected by slightly higher aux/ pre-filled spec trees on the sci toon (?). Haven't parsed my jemvg eng yet.


    This is using the standard pets that come with the ship and 3 points into co-ordination protocols, about 70 aux pwr at idle + leech + 2x OSS, and forgetting to eject the big ship out the back for most of the run (lots of new buttons to push). No other traits or doffs buffing pets or use of manual controls for strafing runs / healing.

    Seems both the carrier and dread have the same number of hangar bays and bonus sub-system power. Would love to see what the elite pets are capable of. Yes am enjoying this ship (and most in the pack) as well :smile:

    Edit: rechecked combat log, photonic fleet was 4K so best parse yet is 24K, not 28K, # of hangars is double on Carrier.
    Post edited by protoneous on
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    I just hope they don't do something insanely stupid like go back later and nerf Jem'Hadar pets.

    Seems like between the Wingman mechanic and the new Jem'Hadar gunboats they finally got it right with pets. The next ship I am getting is the Vanguard Carrier just so I can have 2 hangars of Gunboats.

    I love those things.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
    About 4K higher than the best I've done in a Karfi so hopefully all is working as intended.
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,165 Arc User
    With the right combo of traits the Jem'Hadar Attack ships should out damage the Jem'Hadar Gunboats. Only just unlocked the vanguard carrier on my main that has attack ships so not had chance to test if we can even use them.
  • seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    With the right combo of traits the Jem'Hadar Attack ships should out damage the Jem'Hadar Gunboats. Only just unlocked the vanguard carrier on my main that has attack ships so not had chance to test if we can even use them.

    Nope.
    Not sure if it's a bug or WAI but the JHAS pets are locked the old T5/T6 Dreadnought Carrier.
    On a sidenote the T5/T6 JHEC also can't use the gunboats, not surprising but would have been nice.
  • pottsey5gpottsey5g Member Posts: 4,165 Arc User
    pottsey5g wrote: »
    With the right combo of traits the Jem'Hadar Attack ships should out damage the Jem'Hadar Gunboats. Only just unlocked the vanguard carrier on my main that has attack ships so not had chance to test if we can even use them.

    Nope.
    Not sure if it's a bug or WAI but the JHAS pets are locked the old T5/T6 Dreadnought Carrier.
    On a sidenote the T5/T6 JHEC also can't use the gunboats, not surprising but would have been nice.
    Little odd as they are both Dreadnaught Carriers. Perhaps we should both bug report it.
  • seriousdaveseriousdave Member Posts: 2,777 Arc User
    Even if it is a bug, which I doubt, they're both in very different ship categories.
    Carrier subtype - Dreadnought Carriers have a cmdr. tac, 2 bays and 7 weapon slots.
    Other examples: Vonph, Briostrys, Tzen-tar
    Cruiser subtype - Dreadnought Cruisers have a cmdr. engi, 1 bay and 8 weapon slots.
    Other examples: Gal-X, Rezreth, Chronos, Sheshar, etc.

    My guess is that they wanted to keep the novelty level of the old JHDC up so they kept the JHAS pets locked to it.
  • seaofsorrowsseaofsorrows Member Posts: 10,918 Arc User
    Yeah, it's all part of the way that Cryptic just throws ship names around indiscriminately. They love to use terms like 'battle cruiser' and 'dreadnought' on anything because they think it makes things sell better.

    Specifically though, the new Gunboats are only usable on 'Vanguard' class Dreadnoughts, not any Jem'Hadar Dreadnought or vice versa. Cryptic expects the player to figure that out for themselves.
    Insert witty signature line here.
  • postagepaidpostagepaid Member Posts: 2,899 Arc User
    The kar'fi was one of the early deviations as she's a battle carrier.

    Possibly done because its a much more mobile ship and possibly because the voq'uv which was the only other carrier at the time and as one of the first store ships they probably wanted to make sure people didnt think it was going do be another wallowy barge.

    The vanguard hangar pets don't seem to be as prone to idiocy unlike a lot of the others. They don't have mines to spam 15km away from the target, are actually willing to stay by the carrier when travelling at full impulse and having beams makes them infinitely better than the callisto's. Been using the advanced ones and I'd almost go so far as to say they're close to the rommie drones in terms of a pet pecking order.

    Four of them plus the wingmen means you can easily ignore the optional separation pet which is the low point of the ship as none of their foibles has been looked at.

    On a positive note the foibles haven't been looked at so they've not been made any worse at least.
  • protoneousprotoneous Member Posts: 2,952 Arc User
    Up to 25.69K dps now from the standard pets in an above average run. Having the ship's T5 mastery trait kick in may have helped as I'm using 3 intel boff abilities. The wingmen themselves appeared to account for only just over 2K together. Still forgetting to eject the separation ship out the back regularly so there's potential for more but the pets seem to be doing the bulk of the work.
Sign In or Register to comment.