You know, in all honesty, I think the KDF gets the better deal out of season 6. Not only is the KDF starbase much more atmospheric (like a cross between a 1920s art deco coffee pot and a dieselpunk missile silo) The ships mostly seem to have better stats. a lot of the fed ships may LOOK better, but are essentially VA rank ships with stats the same or weaker than current free RA rank ships of the same type. Based on stats the only really impressive one is the fleet armitage.
The K'Tinga fleet retrofit is going to be a nightmare for the feds in PvP. It's got cruiser hull points on something that can out-turn most of their science ships, AND mount dual heavy cannons, oh yes, and it cloaks too!
The Tor'Khat's hard as nails too, The fleet Qin raptor has 3k more health, 4 engineer consoles and a .9 shield mod making it about as tough as some cruisers, and that Fleet Vo'Quv looks like being the ultimate tank.
46k hull AND two flight decks of BoP, it'll be a Juggernaut!
I don't know enough about cruisers or carriers, but I can tell you that on the list of things Raptors/Escort pilots find important... Hull and ENG consoles are at the very bottom.
The Qin is particularly terrible because it doesn't have the BO layout to take advantage of it's extra hull even if it wanted to. It shares the same BO layout as a Tac Escort...would you give up the Defiant's agility and 5th Tac console for a couple extra thousand Hull and a ENG slot? I sure as hell wouldn't.
Every Federation Escort is superior to the KDFs Raptors and Destroyer. The only exception is the new Fleet Escort Refit, which is pretty terrible. On the KDF side, the only escort that even comes close to pulling it's weight is the Fleet Scourge Destroyer.
OP Keppabar42
You know, in all honesty, I think the KDF gets the better deal out of season 6. Not only is the KDF starbase much more atmospheric (like a cross between a 1920s art deco coffee pot and a dieselpunk missile silo) The ships mostly seem to have better stats. a lot of the fed ships may LOOK better, but are essentially VA rank ships with stats the same or weaker than current free RA rank ships of the same type. Based on stats the only really impressive one is the fleet armitage.
The K'Tinga fleet retrofit is going to be a nightmare for the feds in PvP. It's got cruiser hull points on something that can out-turn most of their science ships, AND mount dual heavy cannons, oh yes, and it cloaks too!
The Tor'Khat's hard as nails too, The fleet Qin raptor has 3k more health, 4 engineer consoles and a .9 shield mod making it about as tough as some cruisers, and that Fleet Vo'Quv looks like being the ultimate tank.
46k hull AND two flight decks of BoP, it'll be a Juggernaut!
I agree with you concerning the appearances of the two starbases. I'm not critical of the Starfleet design because it is visually striking. I don't think it would have been a good decision on the part of the designers to reinvent the wheel here. While it may appear they didn't push the envelope or challenge conventions here it is appropriate and a great piece of work. There was a Dev blog that addressed the decisions made and traced the influences the artist derived his inspirations from. He commuinicated these well and and through extropolation produced a model that was true to it's roots yet still was his own piece.
The Klingon starbase is a fusion of medieval hall/fortress and future technology. The forms seem a nod to the warrior culture and suggest weight and history. I'm not as informed as I should be so I'm not certain of how accurately the design reflects canon history but what it conveys seems fitting and a captures the imagination. Hopefully more players will take notice, take the tour, get swept in and want to give the KDF a shot. You also suggested the presence "diesel-punk" here and I've noticed it as well. This "Fire of Industry" look is consistent with envirionments like the streets of the First City and with ship designs like the Kar-Fi.
I don't care much about vessels that aren't versatile and fast or science and fast. From my perspective MY play (must speak only for myself) within the KDF as far as what has been disclosed is a bit of a letdown. No Kar-Fi (or crummy gorn tubs for that matter) and a BoP I'm leery about don't make me want to celebrate. Since I'm a treacherous fence sitter as well as a devil's advocate I'm very much looking forward to spending some time with my Federation Science officer post season six. I'm not sure what the future holds for my KDF characters but one can hope.
OP ussultimatum
On the other hand, the KDF Battle Cruisers almost completely outclass every Fleet Fed Cruiser in any head to head comparison.
Putting the Vorcha vs. the Assault Cruiser, Corsair vs. Star Cruiser and Negh'var vs. Galaxy - it's not even close.
I'd have to agree that the KDF cruisers are the pick of litter (I've only measured them against the other KDF options and haven't done a cross-faction analysis). Among my characters the engineer was the one who interested me the least and I'd voted him most likely to languish in the the end game. When they put some ships that have solid statlines on the block that boast good (10-11) base movement they have attracted my attention.
As far as having any desire to grind within a fleet for improvement this one may be the character to watch. My tacs and science officers have ships that I enjoy play with and I don't want to reinvent the wheel(respec or alter playstyle from a type I enjoy) because the new alternatives are inappropriate or undesirable and my "go to" vessels are suffering from development neglect.
Unless something is terribly wrong with your "spelling" we already know the "typo" on the Heavy Escort Carrier... Are you really going to give the KDF as a state of the art T5+1 ship a bop with the hull of a lvl 20 commander level bop? And with less shields too... because if memory serves me right the bop shield modifier was 0.8... So in essence welcome to the new ships, you get less hull, less shields, but 2 lt. cmdr's? And this is supposed to be on the same line and balance with a Fleet Escort with 34k hull? Or even better to a Jem'Hadar with turn rate of 20 (TWENTY) and 5 tac consoles and 34.5k hull? Really? Same as a Kar'fi Battle Carrier?
What's next? Put lt. uni boff slot on the Toron Shuttle and call it a Tier 7 kdf battle cruiser?
Oh... and on the fun side the HoH'Sus BoP is a hegh'ta with one more console... and it's a T4/5 Fleet ship... so wait 8 months for the very OP ship with an extra 450 hull? Oh or maybe the Vo'Quv for that very OP extra console....
Unless it's just a typo I think it might be a better idea for current Tac-BOPs to switch to Raptors or Fleet Vor'Cha Retrofits (with RCS and Dual Heavies) instead of the "new" Bird of Preys. I really like the Ning'tao ship design, but I can't think of a way how I should keep this thing from falling apart instantly in PvP (and in STFs Borg torpedoes might always oneshot this ship).
Unless something is terribly wrong with your "spelling" we already know the "typo" on the Heavy Escort Carrier... Are you really going to give the KDF as a state of the art T5+1 ship a bop with the hull of a lvl 20 commander level bop? And with less shields too... because if memory serves me right the bop shield modifier was 0.8... So in essence welcome to the new ships, you get less hull, less shields, but 2 lt. cmdr's? And this is supposed to be on the same line and balance with a Fleet Escort with 34k hull? Or even better to a Jem'Hadar with turn rate of 20 (TWENTY) and 5 tac consoles and 34.5k hull? Really? Same as a Kar'fi Battle Carrier?
What's next? Put lt. uni boff slot on the Toron Shuttle and call it a Tier 7 kdf battle cruiser?
Oh... and on the fun side the HoH'Sus BoP is a hegh'ta with one more console... and it's a T4/5 Fleet ship... so wait 8 months for the very OP ship with an extra 450 hull? Oh or maybe the Vo'Quv for that very OP extra console....
Yeah, I'm *really* hoping that they reconsider the shields and hull on the Ning'Tao, assuming those are accurate stats. I have enough trouble keeping my Hegh'ta together in a battle as it is, let alone while trying to fly something with a mere 16k hull. . .which is so low that I could blast through it with a good BO2/BO3 crit. It's ridiculous. What, were the feddies complaining about the completely universal Boff setup and demanding a nerf somewhere? Sheesh. . .
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
Unless it's just a typo I think it might be a better idea for current Tac-BOPs to switch to Raptors or Fleet Vor'Cha Retrofits (with RCS and Dual Heavies) instead of the "new" Bird of Preys. I really like the Ning'tao ship design, but I can't think of a way how I should keep this thing from falling apart instantly in PvP (and in STFs Borg torpedoes might always oneshot this ship).
The issue at that point is turning rate. Even second-rate fed escorts would probably out-turn us at that point, if we started using the raptors or the Vor'cha retrofit. Firepower-wise and hullpoint-wise, they're ok. . .it's the turning rate that'll nail us.
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
The issue at that point is turning rate. Even second-rate fed escorts would probably out-turn us at that point, if we started using the raptors or the Vor'cha retrofit. Firepower-wise and hullpoint-wise, they're ok. . .it's the turning rate that'll nail us.
One of our destroyers (fleet scourge destroyer refit) matches the Defiants turn-rate, and the Somraw is as agile as anything else the feds have in escorts. We're pretty even on that account.
We're getting absolutely hosed on the Armitage. That ships survivability combined w/ a Hangerbay (800-1k DPS free DPS for pushing a button every 15 seconds) puts it on a different level than other escorts. I'm going to assume the Vesta will probably fit into the MVAEs slot when it comes out... and you can be damned sure that ship is going to be OP as hell too.
Our Escorts (raptors/destroyers) have one main issue. They are hull heavy and shield light. That sounds fine on paper, but it ultimately sucks in-game. Shields are far more important than hull at the escort level, until you start doing nonsensical stuff like giving a BoP 16k. They bandaid this by giving us extra SCI slots, the Leech console, and a beefier set shield... and that's really the only reason it's not a bigger issue than it is.
Unless something is terribly wrong with your "spelling" we already know the "typo" on the Heavy Escort Carrier... Are you really going to give the KDF as a state of the art T5+1 ship a bop with the hull of a lvl 20 commander level bop? And with less shields too... because if memory serves me right the bop shield modifier was 0.8... So in essence welcome to the new ships, you get less hull, less shields, but 2 lt. cmdr's? And this is supposed to be on the same line and balance with a Fleet Escort with 34k hull? Or even better to a Jem'Hadar with turn rate of 20 (TWENTY) and 5 tac consoles and 34.5k hull? Really? Same as a Kar'fi Battle Carrier?
What's next? Put lt. uni boff slot on the Toron Shuttle and call it a Tier 7 kdf battle cruiser?
Oh... and on the fun side the HoH'Sus BoP is a hegh'ta with one more console... and it's a T4/5 Fleet ship... so wait 8 months for the very OP ship with an extra 450 hull? Oh or maybe the Vo'Quv for that very OP extra console....
The only think on the Ning'Tao I would suggest they change is to make the shield modifier higher, maybe 1.2 like science ships. That would pretty much be it. It is a new, but low tier BoP, and you need to pay for all those LTC BO slots somewhere, although I think the price is steep here.
"..and like children playing after sunset, we were surrounded by darkness." -Ruri Hoshino
The only think on the Ning'Tao I would suggest they change is to make the shield modifier higher, maybe 1.2 like science ships. That would pretty much be it. It is a new, but low tier BoP, and you need to pay for all those LTC BO slots somewhere, although I think the price is steep here.
if the Ning Tao is the B'rel +1, then it doesn't matter what the shield multiplier is, imo.
the hull and shield rating makes it very interesting if it has the enhanced battle cloak, and it is still the ship I want most for what I do.
Unless it's just a typo I think it might be a better idea for current Tac-BOPs to switch to Raptors or Fleet Vor'Cha Retrofits (with RCS and Dual Heavies) instead of the "new" Bird of Preys. I really like the Ning'tao ship design, but I can't think of a way how I should keep this thing from falling apart instantly in PvP (and in STFs Borg torpedoes might always oneshot this ship).
I missed the shield modifier...... Yeah, if thats the shields then this ship is doomed by design, even if it does have the ABC.
No Enhanced Battle Cloak for the Ning'Tao according to the information provided on the fleetyards on tribble. Just the regular battle cloak.
If there's no enhanced cloak, then the hull and shields do kind of suck. It makes little sense, but how many devs actually run a B'rel?
I can still make the Ning Tao work, but it's inherently sub-optimal compared to the B'rel Retrofit or the standard Hegh'ta. It's more like a Tier 4.5 ship rather than a Tier 5.5 or Tier 6, or whatever the Fleet ships are supposed to be.
More and more I think about it the Fleet Corsair could be interesting...didn't notice till recently it had a lt cmdr science slot...could be fun and has a slightly better turn rate than the Marauder which is nice too!
I just noticed that as well.
It's no Armitage, and it's not a MVAE, but it has the Sci slots to run something different than a Cruiser & more guns than the Varanus.
If the Ning'tao sucks, then maybe I will try to get the Corsair for myself...
Unless something is terribly wrong with your "spelling" we already know the "typo" on the Heavy Escort Carrier... Are you really going to give the KDF as a state of the art T5+1 ship a bop with the hull of a lvl 20 commander level bop? And with less shields too... because if memory serves me right the bop shield modifier was 0.8... So in essence welcome to the new ships, you get less hull, less shields, but 2 lt. cmdr's? And this is supposed to be on the same line and balance with a Fleet Escort with 34k hull? Or even better to a Jem'Hadar with turn rate of 20 (TWENTY) and 5 tac consoles and 34.5k hull? Really? Same as a Kar'fi Battle Carrier?
What's next? Put lt. uni boff slot on the Toron Shuttle and call it a Tier 7 kdf battle cruiser?
Oh... and on the fun side the HoH'Sus BoP is a hegh'ta with one more console... and it's a T4/5 Fleet ship... so wait 8 months for the very OP ship with an extra 450 hull? Oh or maybe the Vo'Quv for that very OP extra console....
In all possible variations, in all realities, this ship means one thing, and only one possible outcome = a certain death, and a complete failure. There is absolutely no possible way this ship will contribute anything to a solid team dynamic.
The Uni. Lt Cmder slots can only be used for one thing, to try and get this miserable contraption alive long enough to flee. That's it's only value.
In all possible variations, in all realities, this ship means one thing, and only one possible outcome = a certain death, and a complete failure. There is absolutely no possible way this ship will contribute anything to a solid team dynamic.
The Uni. Lt Cmder slots can only be used for one thing, to try and get this miserable contraption alive long enough to flee. That's it's only value.
Yeah, with the reduced hull strength and overall toughness of the BoP, you have to devote more to healing/buffing in order to stay alive. I personally have a hard enough time with my tactical toon in a Hegh'ta, and the Ning'Tao is even flimsier than the Hegh'ta.
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
I have some difficulty in the Hegh'ta, but what it brings is everything but durability.
It sucks in Fleet events when the entire rest of the PUG is on the other side of the map, trying to kill enemies when it has nothing to do with your objectives... but the Hegh'ta can do the job.
In a good group, I think the Norgh/Ning'Tao/Whatever it is will be a great asset. In a bad group, it might be worse than the B'rel, which sucks in the fleet things, IMO, and I love the B'rel.
I have some difficulty in the Hegh'ta, but what it brings is everything but durability.
It sucks in Fleet events when the entire rest of the PUG is on the other side of the map, trying to kill enemies when it has nothing to do with your objectives... but the Hegh'ta can do the job.
In a good group, I think the Norgh/Ning'Tao/Whatever it is will be a great asset. In a bad group, it might be worse than the B'rel, which sucks in the fleet things, IMO, and I love the B'rel.
The biggest issue with me really is durability. I feel the firepower of my current build works well enough, and I just need to work out a few kinks with my power ratio presets. . .but I'm still rather vulnerable.
I'm carrying two tac teams, TTS 1, HE 2, and EPtS 1 + 2. . .so I'm a tad weak in hull heals (not really willing to sacrifice EPtS 2 for Aux to Struct 1) and I've got that irritating vulnerable period between Tac Team cooldowns, where a strong enemy can shred through my shields (despite frantic manual redistributing to the appropriate shield facing on my part) and severely damage or destroy the ship. Escaping is an option, but I'm not always fast enough. In one of these laughable new BoPs, surviving such situations will be even harder than in a Hegh'ta. Hence, my concerns :P
My PvP toon is Krov, of The House of Snoo. Beware of my Hegh'ta of doom.
I love the starbase blockade thing. frequently, I find myself on my own in my Hegh'ta, saving one or two freighters by myself... tanking and healing the freighters at the same time.
I can't do that in the new bird of prey, in all likelihood... but the Hegh'ta is more capable than I thought it would be.
I think the new Ning Tao / Norgh will be great for me. I will push it hard.
of course, in no win and fleet defense, I tend to run my Negh'var.
I?ve been looking at the list of available Fleet versions of the KDF vessels and noticed that none of them have any C-Store versions of them available (correct me if I?m wrong)
So that means that if I want my Fleet Version of the Vo?Quv I?ll need to hand over 20,00 Fleet Marks + $20.00 or equivalent in Dilithium + grind mats for about 4 months to get it and it will only be a per Character unlock on top of that.
Has much has I enjoy the Vo?Quv I?m just not seeing the value in putting so much into getting the Fleet version when it has so little to offer over the standard version.
I?m also not liking the Grind + Pay per Character unlock option that we?re being force feed by PWE\Cryptic.
The whole mechanic is just making Fleet Star Bases seem like a useless cash grab to me now.
Comments
I don't know enough about cruisers or carriers, but I can tell you that on the list of things Raptors/Escort pilots find important... Hull and ENG consoles are at the very bottom.
The Qin is particularly terrible because it doesn't have the BO layout to take advantage of it's extra hull even if it wanted to. It shares the same BO layout as a Tac Escort...would you give up the Defiant's agility and 5th Tac console for a couple extra thousand Hull and a ENG slot? I sure as hell wouldn't.
Every Federation Escort is superior to the KDFs Raptors and Destroyer. The only exception is the new Fleet Escort Refit, which is pretty terrible. On the KDF side, the only escort that even comes close to pulling it's weight is the Fleet Scourge Destroyer.
I agree with you concerning the appearances of the two starbases. I'm not critical of the Starfleet design because it is visually striking. I don't think it would have been a good decision on the part of the designers to reinvent the wheel here. While it may appear they didn't push the envelope or challenge conventions here it is appropriate and a great piece of work. There was a Dev blog that addressed the decisions made and traced the influences the artist derived his inspirations from. He commuinicated these well and and through extropolation produced a model that was true to it's roots yet still was his own piece.
The Klingon starbase is a fusion of medieval hall/fortress and future technology. The forms seem a nod to the warrior culture and suggest weight and history. I'm not as informed as I should be so I'm not certain of how accurately the design reflects canon history but what it conveys seems fitting and a captures the imagination. Hopefully more players will take notice, take the tour, get swept in and want to give the KDF a shot. You also suggested the presence "diesel-punk" here and I've noticed it as well. This "Fire of Industry" look is consistent with envirionments like the streets of the First City and with ship designs like the Kar-Fi.
I don't care much about vessels that aren't versatile and fast or science and fast. From my perspective MY play (must speak only for myself) within the KDF as far as what has been disclosed is a bit of a letdown. No Kar-Fi (or crummy gorn tubs for that matter) and a BoP I'm leery about don't make me want to celebrate. Since I'm a treacherous fence sitter as well as a devil's advocate I'm very much looking forward to spending some time with my Federation Science officer post season six. I'm not sure what the future holds for my KDF characters but one can hope.
Now on the Ning'tao and its abysmal hull points;
EPTS1 EPTS2 RSP2 A2Sif3
TT1 Crf1 ApO1
TT1 crf1 ApO1
HE1 Tss2
Wonder if thats viable?
R.I.P
actually that's pretty close to what I was thinking.
Yeah, that's actually pretty good. . .includes 1-2 ideas that I might look into for my Hegh'ta.
R.I.P
I agree the overall Escort design is better than what the Raptors offer.
On the other hand, the KDF Battle Cruisers almost completely outclass every Fleet Fed Cruiser in any head to head comparison.
Putting the Vorcha vs. the Assault Cruiser, Corsair vs. Star Cruiser and Negh'var vs. Galaxy - it's not even close.
I'd have to agree that the KDF cruisers are the pick of litter (I've only measured them against the other KDF options and haven't done a cross-faction analysis). Among my characters the engineer was the one who interested me the least and I'd voted him most likely to languish in the the end game. When they put some ships that have solid statlines on the block that boast good (10-11) base movement they have attracted my attention.
As far as having any desire to grind within a fleet for improvement this one may be the character to watch. My tacs and science officers have ships that I enjoy play with and I don't want to reinvent the wheel(respec or alter playstyle from a type I enjoy) because the new alternatives are inappropriate or undesirable and my "go to" vessels are suffering from development neglect.
ARE YOU TOTALLY MOCKING US?
Fleet Ning'Tao Bird Of Prey
Commander - Uni
Lt Commander - Uni
Lt Commander - Uni
Lieutenant - Uni
Engineering: 3
Tactical: 3
Science: 3
Weapons
Fore: 4
Aft: 2
Turn: 22
Hull: 16500
Crew: 75
Device Slots: 2
Shield Mod: 0.66
Unless something is terribly wrong with your "spelling" we already know the "typo" on the Heavy Escort Carrier... Are you really going to give the KDF as a state of the art T5+1 ship a bop with the hull of a lvl 20 commander level bop? And with less shields too... because if memory serves me right the bop shield modifier was 0.8... So in essence welcome to the new ships, you get less hull, less shields, but 2 lt. cmdr's? And this is supposed to be on the same line and balance with a Fleet Escort with 34k hull? Or even better to a Jem'Hadar with turn rate of 20 (TWENTY) and 5 tac consoles and 34.5k hull? Really? Same as a Kar'fi Battle Carrier?
What's next? Put lt. uni boff slot on the Toron Shuttle and call it a Tier 7 kdf battle cruiser?
Oh... and on the fun side the HoH'Sus BoP is a hegh'ta with one more console... and it's a T4/5 Fleet ship... so wait 8 months for the very OP ship with an extra 450 hull? Oh or maybe the Vo'Quv for that very OP extra console....
Yeah, I'm *really* hoping that they reconsider the shields and hull on the Ning'Tao, assuming those are accurate stats. I have enough trouble keeping my Hegh'ta together in a battle as it is, let alone while trying to fly something with a mere 16k hull. . .which is so low that I could blast through it with a good BO2/BO3 crit. It's ridiculous. What, were the feddies complaining about the completely universal Boff setup and demanding a nerf somewhere? Sheesh. . .
The issue at that point is turning rate. Even second-rate fed escorts would probably out-turn us at that point, if we started using the raptors or the Vor'cha retrofit. Firepower-wise and hullpoint-wise, they're ok. . .it's the turning rate that'll nail us.
One of our destroyers (fleet scourge destroyer refit) matches the Defiants turn-rate, and the Somraw is as agile as anything else the feds have in escorts. We're pretty even on that account.
We're getting absolutely hosed on the Armitage. That ships survivability combined w/ a Hangerbay (800-1k DPS free DPS for pushing a button every 15 seconds) puts it on a different level than other escorts. I'm going to assume the Vesta will probably fit into the MVAEs slot when it comes out... and you can be damned sure that ship is going to be OP as hell too.
Our Escorts (raptors/destroyers) have one main issue. They are hull heavy and shield light. That sounds fine on paper, but it ultimately sucks in-game. Shields are far more important than hull at the escort level, until you start doing nonsensical stuff like giving a BoP 16k. They bandaid this by giving us extra SCI slots, the Leech console, and a beefier set shield... and that's really the only reason it's not a bigger issue than it is.
The only think on the Ning'Tao I would suggest they change is to make the shield modifier higher, maybe 1.2 like science ships. That would pretty much be it. It is a new, but low tier BoP, and you need to pay for all those LTC BO slots somewhere, although I think the price is steep here.
if the Ning Tao is the B'rel +1, then it doesn't matter what the shield multiplier is, imo.
the hull and shield rating makes it very interesting if it has the enhanced battle cloak, and it is still the ship I want most for what I do.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
I missed the shield modifier...... Yeah, if thats the shields then this ship is doomed by design, even if it does have the ABC.
R.I.P
If there's no enhanced cloak, then the hull and shields do kind of suck. It makes little sense, but how many devs actually run a B'rel?
I can still make the Ning Tao work, but it's inherently sub-optimal compared to the B'rel Retrofit or the standard Hegh'ta. It's more like a Tier 4.5 ship rather than a Tier 5.5 or Tier 6, or whatever the Fleet ships are supposed to be.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
I just noticed that as well.
It's no Armitage, and it's not a MVAE, but it has the Sci slots to run something different than a Cruiser & more guns than the Varanus.
If the Ning'tao sucks, then maybe I will try to get the Corsair for myself...
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
not going to bother with the vo'quv never liked that as it has no turn rate.
give me my kar'fi !!!!!!!!!!!!!
serously id like a dev or someone to explane why we are not getting a kar'fi.
In all possible variations, in all realities, this ship means one thing, and only one possible outcome = a certain death, and a complete failure. There is absolutely no possible way this ship will contribute anything to a solid team dynamic.
The Uni. Lt Cmder slots can only be used for one thing, to try and get this miserable contraption alive long enough to flee. That's it's only value.
Yeah, with the reduced hull strength and overall toughness of the BoP, you have to devote more to healing/buffing in order to stay alive. I personally have a hard enough time with my tactical toon in a Hegh'ta, and the Ning'Tao is even flimsier than the Hegh'ta.
It sucks in Fleet events when the entire rest of the PUG is on the other side of the map, trying to kill enemies when it has nothing to do with your objectives... but the Hegh'ta can do the job.
In a good group, I think the Norgh/Ning'Tao/Whatever it is will be a great asset. In a bad group, it might be worse than the B'rel, which sucks in the fleet things, IMO, and I love the B'rel.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
The biggest issue with me really is durability. I feel the firepower of my current build works well enough, and I just need to work out a few kinks with my power ratio presets. . .but I'm still rather vulnerable.
I'm carrying two tac teams, TTS 1, HE 2, and EPtS 1 + 2. . .so I'm a tad weak in hull heals (not really willing to sacrifice EPtS 2 for Aux to Struct 1) and I've got that irritating vulnerable period between Tac Team cooldowns, where a strong enemy can shred through my shields (despite frantic manual redistributing to the appropriate shield facing on my part) and severely damage or destroy the ship. Escaping is an option, but I'm not always fast enough. In one of these laughable new BoPs, surviving such situations will be even harder than in a Hegh'ta. Hence, my concerns :P
I can't do that in the new bird of prey, in all likelihood... but the Hegh'ta is more capable than I thought it would be.
I think the new Ning Tao / Norgh will be great for me. I will push it hard.
of course, in no win and fleet defense, I tend to run my Negh'var.
IKS Korrasami (Fleet B'rel Bird of Prey Retrofit T5-U)
So that means that if I want my Fleet Version of the Vo?Quv I?ll need to hand over 20,00 Fleet Marks + $20.00 or equivalent in Dilithium + grind mats for about 4 months to get it and it will only be a per Character unlock on top of that.
Has much has I enjoy the Vo?Quv I?m just not seeing the value in putting so much into getting the Fleet version when it has so little to offer over the standard version.
I?m also not liking the Grind + Pay per Character unlock option that we?re being force feed by PWE\Cryptic.
The whole mechanic is just making Fleet Star Bases seem like a useless cash grab to me now.