Armitage for an Engineer

powerpie1234

So I finally reached the big Vice Admieral rank (yay) and bought an Armitage class escort because I've been flying escorts and I figured that what could make an escort even better? Little ships flying around doing MORE damage!

Of course, now the issue before me: how do I overhaul the ship? I've looked through the forums but there's multiple builds out there, and most of them are for the Tac officers, so I'm hoping for some advice on what to shoot for/upgrade to now.

Before I begin, I'm doing this for PvE, not PvP.



On my previous escort (Mirror Patrol Escort) I ran:


Forward Weapons: 4x Disrupter DHC
Rear Weapons: 3x Disrupter Turret

Engineering Consoles: Armor and Turning consoles
Science Consoles: Science Consoles: Shield and Phaser point defense
Tactical Consoles: 4x disrupter enhancers

Bridge Officer Skills -

Commander Tac: Tactical Team 1, Attack Pattern Beta 1, Rapid Firey 2, Attack pattern Omega 3
Lt. Commander Tactical: Tactical Team 1, Attack patern Delta 1, Cannon Scatter Volley 2
Lt. Science: Transfer Shield Strength 1, Hazard Emitters 2
Lt. Com Engineering: Emergency Power to Shields 2, Reverse Shield Polarity 1, Eject Warp Plasma 1
Ensign Tac: Something not Tac Team 1

Also, I probably need help with re-statting the skills on my Captian, I didn't know that you stopped gaining skill points at 50 so I didn't really plan distribution out, and stats on that is less avaliable for an escort.

And finally DOFF skills... Yeah I didn't really maximize that, so help there would be nice.


What I AM aware of is the M.A.C.O. Set is considered the best for this build for engine/deflector/shields, and to either use Anti-Proton or Disrupters.

The biggest issue, besides restatting, is the question of "how many torpedo launchers up front", "which ships to use", and anything else.

Thanks for the help in advance!

article001

your boff layout is off, it's . . .

TAC : Commander, Lt Comm, Ensign
ENG: Lt Comm
SCI: Lt

darkjeff

The only real difference between a Tac captain and an Eng captain with regards to ship layout is that you don't get as much out of Anti-Protons because you don't have APA to max out crits. Other than that, I don't see why advice for Tac captains wouldn't be applicable for the same ship.

powerpie1234

Oh, yes, my BoFF list is very off, terribly sorry about that, fixed.


The bigger issue is the assigning of BoFF skills, and transitioning from all beam to a torpedo OR to keep the all beam set up.

I'm also wondering about the usefulness of the point defense consoles, if they're worth using up one of the science/engineering slots vs something else that can be used to boost the ship.

There's also the RFC vs the AoE skill for the Tactical officers, there seems to be some debate on the issue on which is more useful. Generally it looks like the AoE attacks are preferred but there's good argumetnts for HY/RF as well.

age03

My Sci offf uses one instead of canons it uses phaer arrays.It is the only ship unlocked that is a carrier.

baudl

article001 wrote: »

your boff layout is off, it's . . .

TAC : Commander, Ltd, Ensign
ENG: Lt Comm
SCI: Lt

there, i corrected that for you...it's just a Ltd tac, not a second ltd commander.

for the OP, you must get a zero point module from the romulan faction and a assimilated console from the omega faction. Sacrifice armor consoles and the turnrate console for those 2.
Additional turnrate is only needed for PVP, so you may put in the 360 photon torpedo console. The phaser point defense works best on a ship that uses phasers too, if you use disruptors (which are a good choice) you may rethink that console.

and yes your BOFFs are still off, no TAC ltd commander. http://www.stowiki.org/Heavy_Escort_Carrier

also the 3 tac ensign kind of make it obligatory to either bring in a DBB and beam overload 1 in the last ensign slot, or a torpedo tube for spread or HY 1. If you keep running 4 cannons you will sacrifice that ensign, and then it may be better to actually get the jem hadar heavy escort carrier this one supports 4 cannon builds better. Or you abandon the escort carrier completely and go for escorts with commander and ltd commander tac slots. Fleet patrol escort is probably the best to go with that.
personally i think a DBB and a BO3 (even BO1 or target subsystem x) work best in PVP, while torpedos work very well in stfs (lots of unshielded targets)

doffs is kind of hard since there are so many already i lost count which one are preferable right now. i run dmg contorle and warp core engi for the occasional power increase. and torpedo doff, but if you don't have torpedos that makes no sense ofcourse. doff with the evasive maneuver cd reduction maybe? Or a flightdeck officer.
also i hear the DEM doff is very very good, but then ofcourse you need to run DEM.

darkjeff

powerpie1234 wrote: »

There's also the RFC vs the AoE skill for the Tactical officers, there seems to be some debate on the issue on which is more useful. Generally it looks like the AoE attacks are preferred but there's good argumetnts for HY/RF as well.

What?

CRF gives better single target DPS, but CSV gives better multiple-target DPS. It's much faster taking out three Raptors (in CSE) with CSV3, compared to using CRF3. Unless you're horrible at controlling your fire and end up aggroing things you don't want, there's no reason to take CRF over CSV. Especially if you carry something like APB.

The only big targets you want single-target damage for are Gateways and Cubes, but frankly CSV is better against those because it will take out invisible high yield torpedoes that your client doesn't render. Less damage than CRF, but you don't get insta-gibbed either.

I use HY for torps only because the Rom Hyper-Plasma torp is annoying as heck with Torp Spread. You hit the button but the other targets die (from CSV) before your torps fire? You only get 2 torps instead of the normal 3. This happens a lot, because CSV obliterates groups.

zeusima

I'd suggest something like this for the eng/sci slots for uber tankiness:

empts1, empts2, Aux2sif2
HE1, TSS2

or if you want to fly support:

empts1, empts2, extend shields2
TSS1, HE2

I hate the tac slots, it suffers from useless tac ensign syndrome unless you use torps. If you want to run cannons I'd go 2xtt 2x APD, 1x APO1 and a CSV3. You can run 2 copies of APD in between APO. Basically open up with CSV3 and APO as you run in and when they've expended you can hit APD to soak up the return fire and debuff whatever is shooting you. If you get some romulan +threat consoles you can supplement an engineer's uber tankiness by drawing fire from the hard hitters. Also if you run with 3x shield distribution doffs you get an extra shield heal for yourself.

Some people may disagree, but if you play to the strength of the engineer and get right up in the face of the enemies you can help the tacs do damage whilst you tank all the damage.

sander233

My Armitage runs with quad cannons, DHC, DBB and photon torps forward, and 2x turrets and photon mines aft. I have the torpedo PDS and the standard phaser PDS as well. By running with a mix of weapons I can take advantage of almost every tactical BOff ability and put out some pretty scary DPS over multiple targets.

sander233

zeusima wrote: »

I'd suggest something like this for the eng/sci slots for uber tankiness:

empts1, empts2, Aux2sif2
HE1, TSS2

or if you want to fly support:

empts1, empts2, extend shields2
TSS1, HE2

I do this except I use ETeam1 instead of EMP2S1.