Engineer's in Carriers?

ussfury

Good idea or no?

I have a friend who was debating getting one of the carriers, but as he is still learning more and more and more about the game, wasn't sure if being an engineer was a good thing or bad thing to have a carrier. Basically he is closing in on 800 lobi, and so started debating the Tholian Recluse Carrier and the Jem'hadar Dreadnougt Carrier. He has the Jem'hadar space set, so that would be awesome to put into it. But, he has no clue if an Engineer should even think of touching a Carrier or either of those carriers.


I know I have seen a couple engineers in carriers, but that doesn't make it great to do that.

nelson2014

ussfury wrote: »

Good idea or no?

I have a friend who was debating getting one of the carriers, but as he is still learning more and more and more about the game, wasn't sure if being an engineer was a good thing or bad thing to have a carrier. Basically he is closing in on 800 lobi, and so started debating the Tholian Recluse Carrier and the Jem'hadar Dreadnougt Carrier. He has the Jem'hadar space set, so that would be awesome to put into it. But, he has no clue if an Engineer should even think of touching a Carrier or either of those carriers.


I know I have seen a couple engineers in carriers, but that doesn't make it great to do that.

It dosen't matter just that engineers are better in egineering. And tell him to get the Jem'hadar Dreadnought Carrier

stardestroyer001

Generally speaking, I have very little knowledge about carriers, other than they are an annoyance with the spam (pets) they put out, and that they are very slow ships.

That being said, I would die for a Tholian Recluse Carrier with my Engineer. It is a fantastic ship for healing, with its half-and-half science and engineering boff seating, not-too-bad turning rate and speed, and the ability to do a lot of indirect damage via the carrier pets. I would recommend this ship over the Jem'Hadar Dreadnought, because the Tholian Recluse Carrier fits perfectly with your engineering career and role in PVP teams.

kimmym

In space, character class means very little. Ship choice means a lot more.

The only difference between a tac, sci, and eng in space is the handful of captain only abilities. You can choose all the same skills. You can get other captains to train your boffs for you.

An eng can pilot a carrier fine if that is what they are interested in. I prefer sci myself, but hey, I rolled a sci! I've seen tacs and engs fly them just as well.

As an eng you will have the edge on being able to either

A. Use your boff heals on others, as you will always have your innate self heals to save your own bacon while your boff heals are on cooldown

or

B. Load less heals, slot damage or CC in those slots instead, and rely more heavily on your eng skills to survive.

Edit: I suppose there is also C. Load up on heals, use boff heals and eng natives to tank, but I don't really recommend primary tanking in a carrier. It seems like it should work but they aren't as tanky as they seem. Personally I think it comes down to speed. I think the Carrier eats more crits due to lower defense values. I'd much rather a cruiser be taking hits, even tho I can do it if I have to.

shar487a

kimmym wrote: »

In space, character class means very little. Ship choice means a lot more.

The only difference between a tac, sci, and eng in space is the handful of captain only abilities. You can choose all the same skills. You can get other captains to train your boffs for you.

...<SNIP>...

I don't know if I can agree with the above given how differently the various captain-specialty powers work.

Subnucleonic beam - The ultimate buff-removal / equalizer

Photonic Fleet - A few meh pets

Rotate Shield Frequency - good shield buff

Nadion Inversion - Full power to weapons!

Attack Pattern Alpha + Go Down Fighting = Hulk SMASH!


Yes, the BOFF layouts largely determine how to use a particular ship class / type, but the captain abilties can be pivotal when used correctly.

Regarding Engineers in Carriers -- the bulk of carrier damage is delivered by fighters and frigate pets, so engineer abilities complement carrier defenses quite nicely. The JH Dread is more tac-focused, but its Lt.Cmdr engineering BOFF station gives it a few decent defensive options. It can be a hard nut to crack when used with the Borg set's auto-regen procs.

kimmym

The captain abilities certainly change things up, but I find them to be the least impactful of all the variables.

stardestroyer001

kimmym wrote: »

In space, character class means very little. Ship choice means a lot more.

I can't agree with that either. Those captain abilities, although few in number compared to Boff ability numbers in ships, are very important.

Tac captain: Attack Pattern Alpha, Go Down Fighting, Fire on my Mark, Tactical Initiative. All of these together greatly increase the damage taken by the poor chap in your sights, and Tactical Initiative is great at decreasing Boff cooldown (CD) timers, meaning you can strike hard, more often.

Eng captain: Rotate Shield Freq., Miracle Worker, EPS Power Transfer, Nadion Inversion. Very suitable for defensive operations. Miracle Worker is your backup hull and shield insta-heal. The other abilities excel at keeping power levels optimally placed, and in the words of someone else in this forum, Rotate Shield Freq. is "your Super-TSS". I couldn't agree more.

Sci captain: Subnucleonic Beam ("Subnuc"), Scattering Field, Sensor Scan, Photonic Fleet. Subnuc is an escort's Achilles heel if timed right, and can change the tide of a battle. Scattering Field helps reduce incoming damage (I think), great when activated near other ships. Sensor scan is good for increasing the damage taken by a target. Photonic fleet is also useful against noob PVP players when paired with AMS or Scramble Sensors, and can distract players with the large "bullseye" hologram ships.

Each career has a significant impact on the performance of a player. Sure, you can try to fly an escort as an Engineer, a cruiser as a Science, or a science ship as a Tactical. Sure, you can succeed in that role. But are you the most efficient in that class in a different type of ship? My answer is no.

"Jack of all trades, but a master at none" is a phrase which fits well here. Although there are specialized builds that succeed with a captain in a differently-oriented vessel, for conventional combat, I would say stick with the vessel that BEST utilizes your innate Captain abilities, and become really good at that. You and the other members of your team will greatly appreciate that you did.

eraserfish

Personally, I think it depends on the type of carrier...

I can see an Engineer captain complementing the Dominion Dreadnought rather well, but I don't know what one is supposed to do in a Caitian Atrox or Tholian Recluse that other classes can't do better.

stardestroyer001

eraserfish wrote: »

Personally, I think it depends on the type of carrier...

I can see an Engineer captain complementing the Dominion Dreadnought rather well, but I don't know what one is supposed to do in a Caitian Atrox or Tholian Recluse that other classes can't do better.

The Jem'Hadar Dreadnought (great ship as it is) doesn't have sufficient engineering and science ability slots to fulfill its role as a secondary ship.

Tactical captains may be able to really excel in this ship, using its own buffed weapons and the fighter pets. But that's all it is, a really huge target.

The Tholian carrier, when the universal Commander station is used for engineering, is the optimal healboat. Tons of Engineering and Science heals. Alternatively, the Universal seat could be used for tactical (cycling TT, very useful), and still have some pretty powerful heals.

kimmym

It doesn't surprise me when STO players over or under value the impact of skills.

The forum is literally full of post of people who don't understand the numbers.

smokeybacon90

Certain innates are very very potent. Being on the receiving end of APA+FOMM for example. Others are utterly useless. Popping MW when the Borg are getting feisty and watching it do nothing but suspend your death by half a second.

reynoldsxd

if pvp is an intended occupation, go recluse. The ship is flexible in its boff seating (allowing you the adaptation of either a tac heavy, engineering heavy or science heavy build) and we are bound to get tholian themed items in the may update. So you can kit it out with tholian stuff too, later.




If PVE is the primary occupation:

Go with the dread. Last time i checked the thing mounts dual cannons so point to the target, hammer away and let the pets to the auxiliary work.


Is bound to get more bells and whistles as more jem hadar things is released in new lockboxes. Beware the price though.