I had a similar dilimer when I was rolling my Eng. Do I want a Escort or Cruiser?
I ended up meeting in the middle and going for a Jem'Hadar Heavy Escort Carrier.
Don't let them say cruisers are useless, did a STF earlier on Elite and four of us were cruisers (plus one B'rel retrofit) and we had a flawless run meeting the optional and finishing with time spare on the clock.
Support the Game by Supporting the KDF, equality and uniqueness for all factions!
... but the "optimal" Escort builds are, IMO, boring as sin.
If you can generalize sin as boring, it can only be because you've not participated in any activity that would qualify, according to any of the "mainstream" faiths, as sinful.
Not saying that's a bad thing, just pointing out that to say something is "boring as sin," is much like saying "are great fun!"
This is why I have an alt Eng. she's fun as hell to play. I still see plenty of 'noobs' in scorts not know wtf they are doing. Don't worry, be happy.
[Raises hand]
I'm that n00b.
But, I never team, I solo only, and although I can't say I know what I'm doing, I have great fun with the KILL! KILL! KILL! in the space battles.
I am glad to see so many people also enjoy flying cruisers. I have been switching between Klink and Fed toons recently. I still find my cruiser / engineer to be a real change of pace and quite pleasurable (note I said pleasure as in leisure).
I think 2 things contribute to it:
1) Being non-squishy helps. I have tweaked my escort a lot but it is still can't absorb too much damage unless I am on my defensive powers. BI, EPS and PH are not all on cooldown.
I am also finding myself always fretting about getting max DPS and never able to get better than 3rd place(I usually manage this).
As a cruiser I don't worry about the DPS so much. I set my weapons to 125% toggle my boff powers, beam overload and fire on everything in sight.
2) I feel like I am flying a Trek ship (defiant spamming aside).
As to the shuttle thing ... their crazy turn rate gives me a headache. But to each his own I guess.
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."
Okay, I am not trying to start a flame war and I am still relatively new to the game. I started back in September. But for whatever reason I am having tons more fun flying my cruisers than escort. I started with a tac / escort, played it for months, and spent some time tweaking it with the best build(researched) and purple XI and XII fleet gear.
I started my engineer / cruiser and at first it was slow going. However, once I started going up the ranks from lt cmdr and getting the boffs and powers it was pure awesome sauce. I have had no problems scoring 1st and 2nd place consistently in fleet actions. I can even do it if I come in late into the action. I even had a couple of fun PvP sessions in my brand new Sovereign.
No such luck on my escorts. I am obviously using boffs, maneuvering, stacking the consoles and tetryon heavy cannons, etc. Now I will grant you that I can't hope to match the mad skills of LTS or their OP gear. But still there is something about escorts that rubs me the wrong way. I think it is the aft weapons. They mostly go useless for me. The best I have done is to put a mines, quantum launcher and turret. If I have a perfect run where I soften the shields with tachyon, cannon fire, aceton and then turn around and hit it with a volley of torpedos (torpedo spread). Thus I can pop a cruiser in one pass. But this happens only with a perfect run.
Okay, so I spoke my piece ... and cruisers rule!
I am flying my very first ship I received when i started my kdf character; which is the Norgh Bird Of Prey.
In Fed Minefield I always place in the top 3, with some first places with this bird even when there are vandal destroyers (escort... bwah I dont like that term...) or other heavy hitters are around.
I managed to crit a hit of 12K the other day (or was it 2 days ago? this was on my kdf engineer captain...)
Setup: Plasma
* Fore:
-DBB
-transphasic torpedo (the breen one)
-Dual heavy cannon
*Aft:
-turret
-photon torpedo
And my main tactical bridge officer I am using is the jem'hadar boff you can get as a reward. He is still as he was when I got him; BO1, THY2, TS3 (and Dispersal pattern Beta III, but since I dont have commander boff slots on my bird...)
All I want to say is this; I am having fun flying around in this thing, even when it can fall apart when a fighter even looks the wrong way at it... Its so squishy, but its oh so much fun to fly this thing.
Also I have 2 fed captains, one of which is an engineer and she is flying cruisers (atm she is flying her RA LH ship, the sovereign with polaron weaponry but it kinda fails because I am not specced in FC... ) She also has the big space whale (the aniversary oddy...) but I am not impressed by that thing... Thats why she is flying her sovereign again...
Final note; all you have to worry about is this: what is the most fun to play as/with? When you find out stick with it. Escorts (for ****s sake; this is one stupid name for ships that are actually called destroyers...) are fun, but one-sided. My Fed Sci captain is flying escorts but since I have gotten the commander Ambassador she has been flying that ever since with a single cannon/beam/torpedo setup. She has been doing breen daily's and even the occasional red alert in this ship.
Just go with what you enjoy. I for one am not the person to use the cookie-cutter builds that are around.
PS: I even recieved whispers about the fact I was flying the older ships (I also have the k'tanco cruiser for kdf which I already used in a borg red alert, and also been doing daily's with it but its kinda limited though I did manage to squeeze a critical hit of 10k out of this thing with a dbb and BO1...)
Sorry, big post...
I wasnt planning on saying this much but anyway here it is.
Comments
I ended up meeting in the middle and going for a Jem'Hadar Heavy Escort Carrier.
If you can generalize sin as boring, it can only be because you've not participated in any activity that would qualify, according to any of the "mainstream" faiths, as sinful.
Not saying that's a bad thing, just pointing out that to say something is "boring as sin," is much like saying "are great fun!"
[Raises hand]
I'm that n00b.
But, I never team, I solo only, and although I can't say I know what I'm doing, I have great fun with the KILL! KILL! KILL! in the space battles.
"BATTLE STATIONS! SET PHASERS ON F U!!"
I think 2 things contribute to it:
1) Being non-squishy helps. I have tweaked my escort a lot but it is still can't absorb too much damage unless I am on my defensive powers. BI, EPS and PH are not all on cooldown.
I am also finding myself always fretting about getting max DPS and never able to get better than 3rd place(I usually manage this).
As a cruiser I don't worry about the DPS so much. I set my weapons to 125% toggle my boff powers, beam overload and fire on everything in sight.
2) I feel like I am flying a Trek ship (defiant spamming aside).
As to the shuttle thing ... their crazy turn rate gives me a headache. But to each his own I guess.
- Judge Aaron Satie
Disregard this post...
I am flying my very first ship I received when i started my kdf character; which is the Norgh Bird Of Prey.
In Fed Minefield I always place in the top 3, with some first places with this bird even when there are vandal destroyers (escort... bwah I dont like that term...) or other heavy hitters are around.
I managed to crit a hit of 12K the other day (or was it 2 days ago? this was on my kdf engineer captain...)
Setup: Plasma
* Fore:
-DBB
-transphasic torpedo (the breen one)
-Dual heavy cannon
*Aft:
-turret
-photon torpedo
And my main tactical bridge officer I am using is the jem'hadar boff you can get as a reward. He is still as he was when I got him; BO1, THY2, TS3 (and Dispersal pattern Beta III, but since I dont have commander boff slots on my bird...)
All I want to say is this; I am having fun flying around in this thing, even when it can fall apart when a fighter even looks the wrong way at it... Its so squishy, but its oh so much fun to fly this thing.
Also I have 2 fed captains, one of which is an engineer and she is flying cruisers (atm she is flying her RA LH ship, the sovereign with polaron weaponry but it kinda fails because I am not specced in FC... ) She also has the big space whale (the aniversary oddy...) but I am not impressed by that thing... Thats why she is flying her sovereign again...
Final note; all you have to worry about is this: what is the most fun to play as/with? When you find out stick with it. Escorts (for ****s sake; this is one stupid name for ships that are actually called destroyers...) are fun, but one-sided. My Fed Sci captain is flying escorts but since I have gotten the commander Ambassador she has been flying that ever since with a single cannon/beam/torpedo setup. She has been doing breen daily's and even the occasional red alert in this ship.
Just go with what you enjoy. I for one am not the person to use the cookie-cutter builds that are around.
PS: I even recieved whispers about the fact I was flying the older ships (I also have the k'tanco cruiser for kdf which I already used in a borg red alert, and also been doing daily's with it but its kinda limited though I did manage to squeeze a critical hit of 10k out of this thing with a dbb and BO1...)
Sorry, big post...
I wasnt planning on saying this much but anyway here it is.
Peace