I've seen Beam Escorts here and there. Most weren't too good, but 2 players in particular I saw with JHEC and Spiral Wave Disruptors (very nasty Beams, BTW). With the TAC abilities available from an Escort to combine with the JHEC's ENG BOFF station, those ships could dish out some nasty damage very quickly with those Spirals blasting away at close range.
Huh, I was going to post the only reason beams on escorts lose out to (lt com tac) cruisers is the lost weapon, since power management is quite doable now. I need to see/test some high end escort beam boats. A2B I see as a benefit regardless, Marion is the same and DEM can be spammed more on A2B. You do get the speed defense/getting point blank on targets benefit though in an escort.
I've found that the higher-level tac powers available to an escort- specifically FAW3 and APx3, more than make up for the missing eighth weapon.
An A2B cruiser is going to have much more survivability, but damage-wise an A2B cruiser and a beamscort played the same way- broadside FAW/APB spam- will have similar DPS.
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I've found that the higher-level tac powers available to an escort- specifically FAW3 and APx3, more than make up for the missing eighth weapon.
An A2B cruiser is going to have much more survivability, but damage-wise an A2B cruiser and a beamscort played the same way- broadside FAW/APB spam- will have similar DPS.