Excelsiors are great tanks, if that's the role you want to be in, that is...
It really is a great tank, if set up right almost indestructible, but it is a awesome damage dealer as well. Probably the best tactical cruiser in game, the balance between survivability and raw damage output is perfect.
It really is a great tank, if set up right almost indestructible, but it is a awesome damage dealer as well. Probably the best tactical cruiser in game, the balance between survivability and raw damage output is perfect.
The Fleet Sovereign is better in every way. You get a very useful Tactical Ensign BOFF slot instead of the redundant Ensign Engineer. Same hull and shields, same console layout.
This ship has made the Excelsior second rate... which is really sad for such a classically beautiful design.
The ENS on the fleet Sovvy is only useful for Torp Spread because that ship comes with a 180-degree quantum torp. Otherwise, the Excelsior is far better for a FAW boat. TT1/APB1/FAW3 (or FAW2/APB2 if you like). The ENS is not useless as a ENG, though it is more useful if you limit your EPTs to ENS-level or if you're running an A2Bat setup (like many high-dps Excels seem to do)
What makes you think Starfleet built "hundreds" of the Excelsior class?
It's canonically supported. The Excelsior Class was the workhorse of Starfleet for a very long time. They featured prominently in the battles of the Dominion War and served as personal flagships for many flag officers.
The ENS on the fleet Sovvy is only useful for Torp Spread because that ship comes with a 180-degree quantum torp. Otherwise, the Excelsior is far better for a FAW boat. TT1/APB1/FAW3 (or FAW2/APB2 if you like). The ENS is not useless as a ENG, though it is more useful if you limit your EPTs to ENS-level or if you're running an A2Bat setup (like many high-dps Excels seem to do)
The ENS Tac on the fleet Sov lets you run two tac teams without needing cooldown reducing DOFFs.
For the Excelsior to get full uptime on TT you'll need DOFFs or the lame cookie-cutter A2B.
The Fleet Sovereign is better in every way. You get a very useful Tactical Ensign BOFF slot instead of the redundant Ensign Engineer. Same hull and shields, same console layout.
This ship has made the Excelsior second rate... which is really sad for such a classically beautiful design.
Meh, those are small details to me. You guess why, the second paragraph you wrote here hits the nail on the head. The Excelsior is classically beautiful design, while I never liked the Sovereign. That ship is just all shades of wrong to me. If I tell you I bought it only to slot the wide angle torpedo in my Galaxy & Excel, you'll get the picture.
Anyway, yeah Doffs, Aux2Bat many ways to mitigate the ensign issue. Besides, it's not like end-game in this game is hard or anything, those finesses that make ships different don't really matter as long as the ship outlay is very solid, which is the case with the Excelsior.
The ENS Tac on the fleet Sov lets you run two tac teams without needing cooldown reducing DOFFs.
For the Excelsior to get full uptime on TT you'll need DOFFs or the lame cookie-cutter A2B.
You don't need 2 TTs. Even without a full-row keybind I was hitting "balance shields" hotkey in combat most times. TT is only useful for balancing shields and clearing boarding parties.
So just save it for clearing boarding parties. There is NO reason to run it full-time. If you're in an ENG-heavy cruiser you should be running full-time EPT chains anyways, so you'll be constantly healing shields and adding damage resistance with every EPTS you trigger. Slotting in a sci team or TSS will also boost this, plus shield batteries, plus warp cores with shield aux battery feature.
Especially if you're in a heavy tank of a cruiser, you only ever need 1 TT, and you only need it to clear boarding parties.
TT will not EVER save you from the invisitorps. Ever. They do well over 100k damage through shields. TT only reacts to incoming damage and redistributes shields to that side. 1-shot killers kill you before it can redistribute jack squat.
TT really has very limited uses, more so if your shields are still mostly up already and more so if you redistribute shields on your keybind like most folks that have a keybind already do.
Running it nonstop is a placebo effect. You either save it til you're boarded, or you save it til you're very low on one facing shield. If you run it before you're boarded OR when your shields are still up, it does next to nothing. Either way you pop it when you need it, rather than waste it and have to sit there while it does nothing. Either way, you still only need 1 copy of it, and you use it as-needed rather than nonstop. No need to chain it, ever. The exceptions to this rule are the squishy 'scorts which are losing shield power nonstop. In that case using TT to constantly redistribute makes a bit of sense, but still isn't vital.
On cruisers like Excel/Sovvy? Never needed to chain it. Ever.
You and I have very different definitions of invisitorps. Invisitorps are the unshootable, unstoppable, borg "I hate you, so you die now" buttons that kill you no matter what. Pretty rare these days. Once upon a time were so common you'd get them 5x in a single ISE run.
Erm... no. The invisitorps one shot kill you through full shields. You're not thinking of the same thing I am. There are some normal damage spikes that do a lot of damage (too much IMO) but these are tankable by normal means. The fact that simply having a facing shield stops them means it's not the invisitorps. It means it's just a normal crit hit. In such a case, TT makes no difference, since sheilds dissipated the damage as they normally would have.
Even without shields, you can still tank multiple hits to the hull. PH does a large amount of damage resist, BFI does another large amount. A2SIF does even more still. A2Damp also does more. Then there's the "oh sh**" device (subspace field modulator) you can use on top of all that. Most of these all stack on top of each other. All of these work better than simply balancing your shields (like TT does) because they add actual damage resistance.
If the damage you're worrying about is so small that you barely feel it when you have a facing shield, it wasn't much damage to begin with and it's not the invisitorp. You can't withstand 100K hits. Period. What you're noticing is just normal fire and TT doesn't matter vis-a-vis invisitorps.
As a tac guy, if I had to keep only one ship in the entire game and play only with said ship it would be the excelsior! I have several fleet ships including the sovvie and despite the small difference in turn rate, overall I find the excel tougher, despite also a copy and paste build. Dunno why this is but the excel is really just the best cruiser in game.
"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." - Rocky Balboa (2006)
I'm with Knight, in general. I actually like the ship's looks, to an extent, but that doesn't enter into it: neither this ship nor the Miranda should be flyable anymore. At least, it shouldn't be used by NPCs. Ever. Same with the Galaxy. Let players use "refitted" versions, sure. But nothing older than a Sovereign should be used by NPCs.
I think cryptic made excel too good compared to other non STO era ships, especially the Galaxy. In STO the Excel is superior in almost any way, while it should be the other way round. I don't get what Cryptics devs where thinking.
Personally i never liked it's appearance, i hated it in 1984 and i still hate it today.
I would agree with this, as the Galaxy was designed to replace the Excelsior and Ambassador classes, yet in STO both of those classes are better than the Galaxy.
You don't need 2 TTs. Even without a full-row keybind I was hitting "balance shields" hotkey in combat most times. TT is only useful for balancing shields and clearing boarding parties.
You don't PvP much, do you?
With DPS creep as it is a properly fitted escort can eat through a shield facing in about two seconds. Tac Team redistributes shields much faster than hitting the button manually and having it up 100% of the time is pretty much a necessity given the amount of damage flying around these days.
I always laugh in PvP when I see someone tag an engineering or sci team... no shield distribution for 15 seconds means you are mine.
TT will not EVER save you from the invisitorps. Ever. They do well over 100k damage through shields. TT only reacts to incoming damage and redistributes shields to that side. 1-shot killers kill you before it can redistribute jack squat.
TT really has very limited uses, more so if your shields are still mostly up already and more so if you redistribute shields on your keybind like most folks that have a keybind already do.
Running it nonstop is a placebo effect. You either save it til you're boarded, or you save it til you're very low on one facing shield. If you run it before you're boarded OR when your shields are still up, it does next to nothing. Either way you pop it when you need it, rather than waste it and have to sit there while it does nothing. Either way, you still only need 1 copy of it, and you use it as-needed rather than nonstop. No need to chain it, ever. The exceptions to this rule are the squishy 'scorts which are losing shield power nonstop. In that case using TT to constantly redistribute makes a bit of sense, but still isn't vital.
On cruisers like Excel/Sovvy? Never needed to chain it. Ever.
i was under the impression TT also gave a small DPS bump
dsaris, I've seen how broken and unbalanced PvP is and nope, I don't PvP much. Still, you don't need to run them FULL TIME. If an escort eats through your shields in a couple of seconds, you can wait til you're attacked THEN pop TT. It will last 10 seconds, after which time many of the attacker's buffs will have died out or faded, and you will have reacted and started fighting back.
The entire notion of spamming TT nonstop is just outdated thinking.
As for TT giving a DPS boost -- it's VERY small. What it does is give a +skillpoint bonus but this doesn't affect your final damage tally very much. You get way more damage boost just controlling your power levels properly than you would from popping a TT.
the fleet excel is a massive improvement over the old assault cruiser ive had for 3 years. it tanks well, it puts out solid damage. it manuoverable enough with the right skills. its iconic and the ensign engineering slot i use for epw1. if i can get DEM and marion on the ship, the excelsior would be a trollboat, firing off nanite disruptor arrays, putting out potentially 3k a hit.
T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW. Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
the fleet excel is a massive improvement over the old assault cruiser ive had for 3 years. it tanks well, it puts out solid damage. it manuoverable enough with the right skills. its iconic and the ensign engineering slot i use for epw1. if i can get DEM and marion on the ship, the excelsior would be a trollboat, firing off nanite disruptor arrays, putting out potentially 3k a hit.
DEM for Lt Commander is available. Have it on Sopina, a pruple Boff that I gained through leveling up a year ago. As for Marion, yeah, you don't need me telling you how expensive he is.
All I am missing on mine is the +30 damage mag regulators or spiral equilivant - which has been impossible (the latter) in lieu of how quickly and how little provisions one obtains when completing the necessary projects for them.
"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." - Rocky Balboa (2006)
Comments
It really is a great tank, if set up right almost indestructible, but it is a awesome damage dealer as well. Probably the best tactical cruiser in game, the balance between survivability and raw damage output is perfect.
The Fleet Sovereign is better in every way. You get a very useful Tactical Ensign BOFF slot instead of the redundant Ensign Engineer. Same hull and shields, same console layout.
This ship has made the Excelsior second rate... which is really sad for such a classically beautiful design.
It's canonically supported. The Excelsior Class was the workhorse of Starfleet for a very long time. They featured prominently in the battles of the Dominion War and served as personal flagships for many flag officers.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Excelsior_class
The ENS Tac on the fleet Sov lets you run two tac teams without needing cooldown reducing DOFFs.
For the Excelsior to get full uptime on TT you'll need DOFFs or the lame cookie-cutter A2B.
Meh, those are small details to me. You guess why, the second paragraph you wrote here hits the nail on the head.
Anyway, yeah Doffs, Aux2Bat many ways to mitigate the ensign issue. Besides, it's not like end-game in this game is hard or anything, those finesses that make ships different don't really matter as long as the ship outlay is very solid, which is the case with the Excelsior.
You don't need 2 TTs. Even without a full-row keybind I was hitting "balance shields" hotkey in combat most times. TT is only useful for balancing shields and clearing boarding parties.
So just save it for clearing boarding parties. There is NO reason to run it full-time. If you're in an ENG-heavy cruiser you should be running full-time EPT chains anyways, so you'll be constantly healing shields and adding damage resistance with every EPTS you trigger. Slotting in a sci team or TSS will also boost this, plus shield batteries, plus warp cores with shield aux battery feature.
Especially if you're in a heavy tank of a cruiser, you only ever need 1 TT, and you only need it to clear boarding parties.
TT really has very limited uses, more so if your shields are still mostly up already and more so if you redistribute shields on your keybind like most folks that have a keybind already do.
Running it nonstop is a placebo effect. You either save it til you're boarded, or you save it til you're very low on one facing shield. If you run it before you're boarded OR when your shields are still up, it does next to nothing. Either way you pop it when you need it, rather than waste it and have to sit there while it does nothing. Either way, you still only need 1 copy of it, and you use it as-needed rather than nonstop. No need to chain it, ever. The exceptions to this rule are the squishy 'scorts which are losing shield power nonstop. In that case using TT to constantly redistribute makes a bit of sense, but still isn't vital.
On cruisers like Excel/Sovvy? Never needed to chain it. Ever.
What are YOU referring to?
Even without shields, you can still tank multiple hits to the hull. PH does a large amount of damage resist, BFI does another large amount. A2SIF does even more still. A2Damp also does more. Then there's the "oh sh**" device (subspace field modulator) you can use on top of all that. Most of these all stack on top of each other. All of these work better than simply balancing your shields (like TT does) because they add actual damage resistance.
If the damage you're worrying about is so small that you barely feel it when you have a facing shield, it wasn't much damage to begin with and it's not the invisitorp. You can't withstand 100K hits. Period. What you're noticing is just normal fire and TT doesn't matter vis-a-vis invisitorps.
Really? I'd pick the JHAS. That sucker can turn and burn.
You don't PvP much, do you?
With DPS creep as it is a properly fitted escort can eat through a shield facing in about two seconds. Tac Team redistributes shields much faster than hitting the button manually and having it up 100% of the time is pretty much a necessity given the amount of damage flying around these days.
I always laugh in PvP when I see someone tag an engineering or sci team... no shield distribution for 15 seconds means you are mine.
i was under the impression TT also gave a small DPS bump
it does, depends on crew though.
The entire notion of spamming TT nonstop is just outdated thinking.
As for TT giving a DPS boost -- it's VERY small. What it does is give a +skillpoint bonus but this doesn't affect your final damage tally very much. You get way more damage boost just controlling your power levels properly than you would from popping a TT.
Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
DEM for Lt Commander is available. Have it on Sopina, a pruple Boff that I gained through leveling up a year ago. As for Marion, yeah, you don't need me telling you how expensive he is.
All I am missing on mine is the +30 damage mag regulators or spiral equilivant - which has been impossible (the latter) in lieu of how quickly and how little provisions one obtains when completing the necessary projects for them.