which VA ship for rear admiral?

annemarie30

I have one of each maturing in their respective field. I can afford ONE of the Cstore ships, and I have either the Nebula or the Excelsior in mind. either way one of the classes will be in the wind, I think the engineer will do ok in whatever she flies.

I'd appreciate input, especially the wisdom of buying a RA ship, since it's likely i'll need to buy a VA ship (thinking Regent)

thunderfoot

Dunno if I ought to offer advice or not. Haven't flown either of them. In a fleet I used to be in, one of the members has every possible version of the Nebula which he flies exclusively. We referred to it as 'The Magic Bus' because it seemed to take the entire map to turn around on. However, once he had a lock on something, it was gone shortly thereafter as he never seemed to run out of Gravity Wells, Tyken's Rifts and all the other kewel Science spells.

I am going to make a dangerous assumption from the brevity of your post. Namely, you've already made up your mind and are just checking against people whom you think are more knowledgeable about the game in general and Nebulas in particular. I'd say get both of the ships you want eventually. The Excelsior seems to be a very viable ship based on the numbers I've seen in the game. There were a couple of ships I wanted from the CStore as well. I purchased one for my birthday and a few months later went back and got the other. STO should be around long enough for you to enjoy owning both ships some day

flatmatt

I would not buy a rear admiral ship if you're just going to replace it in 10 levels, especially if doing so would force you to wait to gather the Zen for the latter. The only time I would do that is if you're planning to upgrade the RA ship into a fleet version of the same ship and get the discounted price on the fleet ship.

As far as those ships in particular, I have to say I love my Fleet Nebula (I bought the C-Store version first, then upgraded to the Fleet version at 50 for 1 module). But you should study the stats and think about what you're getting into; it doesn't fly like a typical science ship or a typical cruiser.

I haven't flown any version of the Excelsior, but of course I hear they're quite good.

reginamala78

The problem with the Nebula is that, except for cloak detection and TNG aesthetics, the Vesta is faster, more durable, has more consoles, has a hangar, and potentially carries more firepower. Plus with the two universal boff slots, you can change roles on the fly from pure science to half cruiser or half escort.

Excelsior is effective but not that different from a standard Assault Cruiser, trading a bit of durability for a bit of firepower an the transwarp capability. The Odyssey on the other hand is sluggish but can absorb silly amounts of abuse and again has those universal slots for on-the-fly adjustments or tailoring to very different captains. I have one, I adore it, and while it'll never match the DPS of my mothballed Excelsior, it can do everything else.

If you're going to try and use one ship in several distinct ways, universal slots will help you with tailoring to your captain. Otherwise you're trying to force a square peg in a round hole.

age03

I would go for the Excelsior fro rear admiral especially if you are am emgimeer or the assult criuser.I would get the oddy pack or 1 of the vestas.

smokeybacon90

You should be planning ahead for your fleet ship. In that respect, I recommend the Excelsior Retrofit.

Also note that there is little difference between the RA and VA ships, they are all considered T5 vessels. Don't fret about your level 40 free choice, since you can get all of those 6 choices via the mirror ships, which are very cheap on the exchange.

annemarie30

smokeybacon90 wrote: »

You should be planning ahead for your fleet ship. In that respect, I recommend the Excelsior Retrofit.

Also note that there is little difference between the RA and VA ships, they are all considered T5 vessels. Don't fret about your level 40 free choice, since you can get all of those 6 choices via the mirror ships, which are very cheap on the exchange.

that's a brilliant idea. the mirror ships are all backward, right? the boff assignments are in the other skin? so if I want an assault cruiser bridge setup i need the star cruiser?

mandoknight89

annemarie30 wrote: »

that's a brilliant idea. the mirror ships are all backward, right? the boff assignments are in the other skin? so if I want an assault cruiser bridge setup i need the star cruiser?

The Mirror Star Cruiser is a Sovereign that plays like the normal Star Cruiser. The Mirror Assault Cruiser uses the Star Cruiser models, but plays like the Sovereign.

I love my Regent, but it's up to you if its slightly lower turn rate, Ensign Tactical, and Wide-Angle Torpedo are worth $5 more than the Excelsior's Ensign Engineering, 8 deg/sec base turn, integrated Transwarp system, and design from the '80s.

smokeybacon90

The Fed Mirrors share all the same stats of their prime counterpart, but the skin and crew number (unimportant) are swapped.

So Mirror Star has same stats as Prime Star, but looks like an Assault, and has the Assault's crew amount, etc.

Note the KDF mirrors are true mirrors in that their stats are changed.

ferdzso0

buy the tactical Vesta. it knows everything (and does all of them well), it is a fleet ship out of the box, it looks great, and it not only knows everything as mentioned earlier, but it even knows more...

variant37

ferdzso0 wrote: »

buy the tactical Vesta. it knows everything (and does all of them well), it is a fleet ship out of the box, it looks great, and it not only knows everything as mentioned earlier, but it even knows more...

Agree. I own the Vesta, and this is going to be a weird complaint, but it's too good. It truly is "multi mission" in that it does just about everything well. There's absolutely no reason for my character to ever fly any other ship. I also own a Nebula and it pales in comparison. The only time it comes out of the dock is if I'm running around the map doffing or something. If I'm going into combat the Vesta gets the call.

Anyhoo...since the Vesta was not mentioned as one of the two ships the OP is considering, I recommend the Excelsior.

trixiefan

If it's a choice between only Nebula or Excelsior then get the Excelsior, Nebula turns to slow to be a good science vessel imo, but I'm biased by looking at it as a sci/sci primary. If other ships are in the running Vesta seems a good bet and also the blockade runner retro from steam store. Scis and engies are okay in escorts in pve.

I myself faced a similar choice and went with blockade runner retro, cos it's account wide and pretty close to fleet patrol.

Edit: Those RCS and single cannon+turret builds might work well on the nebula, should give it an acceptable turn for sci stuff like SNB and nice damage if you use universal lt on a tac for 2 CRF, can do similar on an excelsior tho.