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Tactical Escort as an Escort and not a Gunboat.
revlot
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Defiant#Depiction
...(snip)...
"It is officially designated as an escort vessel to avoid the perception that Starfleet builds warships."
...(snip)...
"Although it was designed to be fast and highly maneuverable with powerful weaponry, the Defiant was 'overgunned and overpowered' for a vessel of its size."
...(snip)...
"The ship was designed specifically for battle, featuring innovative pulse-phaser cannons and quantum torpedo armaments, in addition to photon torpedoes, standard phasers and a high-capacity deflector shield system. Another asset is its ablative armor, enabling the ship to sustain multiple hits from enemy weapons even with the shields inoperable with minimal damage."
...(snip)...
It seems that a lot of people are convinced that the only way to play a Tactical Escort is as a Cannon Gunboat. I think that is a waste of a Tactical Escort. I believe the ship was designed to provide 'Tactical Support' to the other ships that it is 'Escorting', hence the name. And to that end, I have been trying to develop what I hope is a useful ship. I have a Tetryon beam ship. 5 beams and 2 banks. And I am getting better at pulling down shields. 7 weapons at 2.5% shield effect is 17.5% per cycle that is about a 1 in 6 chance to have the shield effect happen. I know that my 2000 DPS is a bit mild for the truly blood-thirsty here, but there are others who may enjoy the novelty/challenge of actually trying to fly a Tactical Escort as a Tactical Escort.
Ya, compared to most I am a N00B and speaking from inexperience, but I still think I have a point - and hey, it is something else to do with the game. I sure would like some *constructive* feedback, other peoples past experience, suggestions. Would I do better mixing flavors of weapons? With different weapons? With kinetic and energy weapons? With only kinetic weapons?
...(snip)...
"It is officially designated as an escort vessel to avoid the perception that Starfleet builds warships."
...(snip)...
"Although it was designed to be fast and highly maneuverable with powerful weaponry, the Defiant was 'overgunned and overpowered' for a vessel of its size."
...(snip)...
"The ship was designed specifically for battle, featuring innovative pulse-phaser cannons and quantum torpedo armaments, in addition to photon torpedoes, standard phasers and a high-capacity deflector shield system. Another asset is its ablative armor, enabling the ship to sustain multiple hits from enemy weapons even with the shields inoperable with minimal damage."
...(snip)...
It seems that a lot of people are convinced that the only way to play a Tactical Escort is as a Cannon Gunboat. I think that is a waste of a Tactical Escort. I believe the ship was designed to provide 'Tactical Support' to the other ships that it is 'Escorting', hence the name. And to that end, I have been trying to develop what I hope is a useful ship. I have a Tetryon beam ship. 5 beams and 2 banks. And I am getting better at pulling down shields. 7 weapons at 2.5% shield effect is 17.5% per cycle that is about a 1 in 6 chance to have the shield effect happen. I know that my 2000 DPS is a bit mild for the truly blood-thirsty here, but there are others who may enjoy the novelty/challenge of actually trying to fly a Tactical Escort as a Tactical Escort.
Ya, compared to most I am a N00B and speaking from inexperience, but I still think I have a point - and hey, it is something else to do with the game. I sure would like some *constructive* feedback, other peoples past experience, suggestions. Would I do better mixing flavors of weapons? With different weapons? With kinetic and energy weapons? With only kinetic weapons?
Post edited by revlot on
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However my Defiant with its cannons is an escort...it escorts my enemies to hell
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
It says it's an escort ship only in name and, is in fact, a warship.
Not sure where you're getting the idea that it was designed for escorting.
If you want to fly a beam boat, you're more than allowed to. After all, it's your ship and you can do whatever you want. If you want to fly your ship as a support ship, I suggest you max out Threat Control so that you will pull aggro from the other ships that do more damage than you.
And, if you do that, make sure you max out your Defense as much as possible (Aegis set, Evasive trait, all Romulan Superior Subterfuge traits). You should be able to get up to 100% Defense.
but canon is flawed...which canon should the devs build the Galaxy on...the ship that took out a borg cube or the one that taken out by a BOP?
Let us explore it... together. Each man hides a secret pain. It must be exposed and reckoned with. It must be dragged from the darkness and forced into the light. Share your pain. Share your pain with me... and gain strength from the sharing.
First, it's your ship, your time, your dilithium and your choice. The novelty is probably interesting.
Second, the main reason people fly them as cannon platforms is that is where the DPS is. I'm sure the canon descriptions talk about 'support', but the game doesn't really allow most escorts to provide much in the way of 'support'. As others have mentioned, threat control doesn't work that well unless you have time to build a ton of threat and have good DPS yourself -- at 2k DPS, someone else dropping 11k on a tac cube will rip threat right off of you.
If you go this route, since you won't be killing that fast, pumping defense is a good idea. Both the Aegis and Borg sets would be useful for that.
I would strongly recommend you stay out of elite STF's in such a configuration, because you will be a liability. I hate to put it that way but it's true.
Thank You. So many people get personally offended at other peoples ship builds, that your sentiment is appreciated.
I enjoy trying new things with the game. So many pieces, so many ways to assemble them. The game is more than 'DPS'. I feel that forcing ships into cookie-cutter builds limits the game. And the fun, for me anyways, is in the Variation. 'I.D.I.C.'
Back to that 'One Ship One Enemy' viewpoint. I am fast enough that I can provide Tactical Support by coming along side somebody who is pounding out 100 dps on a target, open up with my BO abilities of Target Shields Subsystems 1 and Tachyon Beam 1, and lay into their facing shield with my shield effecting Tetryon weapons, pop their shields, then we both lay into their open side. I can also take shield damage, flip around to expose a healthy shield to the fire, and my beams continue to make contact with their exposed side. If the target runs away I can keep up and continue to pound the down shield.
Making the most kills leaves no time to enjoy the battle and to choose my targets, after all - we are going to win the battle sooner or later, and to me, fast battles become monotonous - one battle resembling another, with no variation. I have ignored armor and concentrated on my shields. I have 2 Shield Emitter Amplifier consoles and 3 Field Emitter consoles to beef up my shields, and my Hyper Injection [Scap] warp core devotes an additional 7.5% engine power to the shields at all times along with a periodic shield buff ability.
I am advancing through the Reputation system, so I play Infected Elite a lot for example, and consistently earn 11 Borg Neurol Processors. I die, I don't die, I engage most the targets, I engage fewer of the targets, I run away till my systems come back from near death, I dive into the firestorm and get blasted into component atoms, and I even get some of the enemy to break away from the main battle and follow me, catching me, not catching me, till I lead them back to the battle, where the rest of the PvE team has slaughtered the smaller fleet left behind. Joining the public Queue I don't get a choice of who I play with, most often a mix of hard-core and casual players. I get called a N00B when I do something stupid, I learn, and I get better. One mans Liability is another mans Asset.
It all comes down to how you play the game. It is either all numbers and who performs the best, or eschewing perfection in favor of the pursuit of 'Fun' !?! I expect that there are flaws in my strategy, there is a great deal about the game that I still do not know even after all this time playing. I just like to be immersed in my beloved Trek. But I am learning, and finding more ways to enjoy the game. I just wish more people with unique builds would come forth amid the ocean of perfect ship builds.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/ you could post the entirety of your current build.
Tetryons....
In all honesty you should still be usinc cannons. They tend to fire more often and therefor will proc more often.
If you like beams have you thought about getting a set of polarized tetryon beams from the new link mission in the cardassian arc? 10% chance instead of 2.5 http://sto.gamepedia.com/Polarized_Tetryon_Beam_Array. Comes in beam bank as well http://sto.gamepedia.com/Polarized_Tetryon_Dual_Beam_Bank.
If you also used 2 pices from the omega force set you could add more shield damage per hit aswell.
You should probably also have some good kinetic weapons for when you take the shield down.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
This is it right there, my sci with 2 dual beams wipe shields out quick and easy, then once the shields are down its time for other subsystem targeting and putting torpedos in the hole in the shields. Plus a sci has better surviveability than a tac with almost the same maneuvarability and has the same or better with an RCS console if you feel its not enough. Thats not even touching the other tools at a sci's fingertips.
An escort is meant to do heavy damage and switching to anything on the fore than a torp and dual heavy cannons just makes you a weaker and easier to kill target. Best to go with the most damage you can dish out because a tac will always have less defense than engi or sci and the high damage makes up for that weakness.
Escorts are meant to be in groups as well, not 1 escort protecting a single ship but multiple, this seperates an enemies firepower while maximizing the escorts and distracts the enemy from firing on the ship they are escorting. A team of 5 optimaly should have 3 escorts, 1 beam boat, and 1 science vessel The escorts escort the beam boat and the science supports them.
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
Thanx for the suggestions, it IS a work in progress.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=tetryonescort_3922
Bind On Pickup - not for sale at any price. At least 5 plays of the mission to get my 5 arrays, and who knows how many plays to get dual beam banks.
Polarized Tetryon Beam Arrays do not come with modifiers suffixes, as other weapons normally do, as they are already a Rare item. I went with fleet issue for prestige and something to spend those fleet credits on, plus the fleet has better modifiers than the Polarized Tetryon.
Use 2 slots for someting other than what they are currently used for? Hmmm... As I say, I am not trying to be the kill shot. I am just trying to provide Tactical Support to the other ships around me. I can rely on others to pop a torp in the hole.
In addition to all of the other comments in this thread, I don't think you really understand what the word 'escort' even means. Even if you go with your reasoning that the ship should be there to escort things (based on your quote though it is a warship, not an escort) (also, dunno where you got 'support' from), escorts are there to make sure things don't get attacked. That's what an escort does. If you are escorting something, you need to be able to deter attack or destroy attackers before they can get to what you are escorting. That means you need to be supercharged on the weaponry front. Soooo, in short, I guess, what are you even talking about?
Pay no attention to the dates and titles under my name at the left! I am a Career Officer, Lifetime Sub since launch, was in the Beta. Having problems with my forum account.
Yeah, but would it be a Defiant class ship? The extra ens. Tac slot would be infinitely better as a universal slot. The Sao Palo ship was a partial re-design of the Defiant class ship, meant to fight the Dominion, and even more specifically counteract Breen weapons.
I suppose that if there is ever a level cap increase, and presumably a ship level increase, a fleet Sao Palo class could actually gain an additional console slot and or Boff boost to have a Lt. Commander engie slot, 5 tac consoles, and an additional engi console.
Granted I am a total Defiant class fan boy, and this is kind of a pipe dream for me.
You could replace your shield emitter amps with their romulan plasma version. Add a little burn to your attacks.
I remember hearing that tachyon beam was near useless. But that may have been against Players. I also dont remember if flow caps boosts the tetryon proc.
Not everything you see on the internet is true - Abraham Lincoln
Occidere populo et effercio confractus
I can't speak for the player damage but the proc is boosted by flow caps.
In star trek is, as some guys said, not really escorts but a type of warships.
For escorts in STO to be more like star trek universe escorts, they should have better armor (much more than cruisers) and firepower, but less science abilities (to none), less shields and less crew.
Escorts like in real life escorts should be a class with more speed and less fire power but more abilities against all kind of enemy ships. (their job was to protect unarmed cargo convoys against all kind of threats for long distances and time)
In current STO classes I think more close to escorts are the science ships.
(A very underestimated class if you ask me.
It s a ship only for team players who know what they are doing and what their purpose is. Because of that and also because game rewards more for raw damage science ships aren't so popular...)
Escort and gunboat are synonymous, hate to bring modern navy into it but escorts are the aegis cruisers surrounding the aircraft carrier. high firepwoer great mobility, small craft comparatiivly. What was a gunboat in the 1940's. There will always be a need for an independant small craft with high firepower for its size as long as there are slow and huge ships to escort from point A to B because of small ships with high firepower.
If Op is thinking gunboat as a riverboat or swiftboat then thats a whole nother cup of tea altogether and was used for patrols in those narrow rivers. river boat/gunboats were heavily armed metal hulled ships designed to navigate rivers, deltas, bays and open ocean. they excelled in close quarters such as rivers or deltas where an enemy sub could not torp them to oblivion and open sea ships did not have the ability to target a small fast vessal.(Yes i know there are Zodiac variants today that perform 110% better)
"I'm drunk, whats your excuse for being an idiot?" - Unknown drunk man. :eek:
On the flip side, I've got a cannon build that can seriously damage larger enemies, and wipe out waves of smaller enemies before they even get a shot off.
I run three cannons up front* + 1 torpedo launcher, three turrets on the back. Approaching a wave of enemies, pop Cannon Scatter Volley III and let fly. Once you see your primary target's forward shields drop (which won't take long!), pop Torpedo Spread III and fire. Do this with a group of NPC escorts or frigates, watch 'em all blow up.
With heavier ships, I'm more likely to Cannon Rapid Fire + Torpedo High Yield to knock off a chunk of their hull, then swing around for another pass. And my turrets can keep pounding the target while I swing about.
Either way, I've made good use of this in Red Alerts, bringing down a few spheres while weakening others enough for teammates to finish off quickly. It's extremely fun.
*Depends on the ship, of course, but you get the idea.
Oh, absolutely. There's "best" builds, and there's "fun" builds .The trick is to find a good balance, so you're enjoying yourself without TRIBBLE over others in your team.
Keep calm, and continue firing photon torpedoes.