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Marauder FDC vs. Fleet Corsair/ Corsair FDC retrofit
rebel230
Member Posts: 90 Arc User
Hello, I was hoping for some info about these ships. I have the Marauder FDC and was wondering is the fleet Corsair FDC a big enough improvement to go for?
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This. In the realm of carriers, the Fleet Corsair isn't really worth spending 4 modules and 20k marks on, unless you have nothing else to spend 'em on. The Fleet Kar'fi is a MUCH worthier purchase. Stronger shields, tac options, and a 2nd hangar, in exchange for a few hullpoints, engineering options, and speed modifier. Fleet Kar'fi kicks a LOT more butt than the Fleet Corsair.
The entire FDC line has honestly been 'meh' from the very start. I don't know anybody who actually likes them and flies them.
I do sometimes fly a Marauder and find that a surprisingly effective ship for my engineer. Do both PvE and PvP with it, both with decent results, combining decent sustained DPS (generally 8-12k single target sustained) with some shareable heals and the ability to take a beating. If I were to mod that build to the Fleet Corsair, I'd probably drop DEM for GW1 and ET1 for either a second HE or maybe Tyken's Rift - that way it'd be a cruiser with solid crowd control capacities.
I think the improvement you experience from getting the Fleet Corsair is highly dependant on what you want to do. It's probably more flexible in the total amount of things it can do, but you will be forced to trade in some of the stuff that's standard to cruisers, these days (2xEPtS, RSP & DEM leaves you with just one ability left, for instance). I don't generally do A2B builds, but I imagine a single A2B build would work really well with some of the sci skills' longish cooldowns.
Edit:
And yes, Kar'fi is awesome too - like it a lot. Tends to evaporate on me in PvP, though, but that might be my lack of skill flying it. I've always found myself wishing the Kar'fi had just one more eng ability or something. Definitely better damage potential, though, what with it's tac seatings and second hangar bay.
Its poor as a cruiser because only 2 tac consoles, so it cant do much damage with its beams (although, at least it has 8 beams instead of just 6). Turn-rate is miserable for offensive sci unless you stand at the edge of the engagement and dont get targeted (no cloak so forget that). Only one hangar so the pets wont make up for it either. Not the best choice at defeinsive support since it doesnt have the deep survivability to be a healer tank. And it lacks the uni BOFF seating to dynamically switch roles in the middle of a match.
But, what it can do is spam Orion Interceptors and run a high-shield high-aux power scheme and debuff everything on the map. Finally, a ship that makes sense running Aceton Beam and Voth AP weapons.
In my opinion, the Marauder is one of the best tankers in the game. The boff layout is perfect for it. Spec it to grab aggro and put in resist/heal skills and you're basically unkillable. It's a ship that plays to an engineers skills.
However the Marauder has a short coming, no fleet variant. So less hull/shields and 1 less console than the rest of the end game pack.
The Fleet Corsair Retrofit, is a slightly different beast to it's T4 variant and Marauder cousin. They've moved some boff seating around and consoles to be slightly more sci focused.
This lets you dabble with a decent range of sci boff skills whilst still remaining reasonably tanky. Higher turn rate than Marauder, same hull, 10% more shield.
I've come to really like the Fleet Corsair and I always find myself coming back to it.
You can tank basically as well as the Marauder, perhaps even more so depending what your sci boffs do.
Having said that, my current build is capable of some decent DPS. Often in KASE if someone handles probes I can DPS one side by myself before the other team of 3 finish their side.
Last time I checked (before my current heavier dps build) I was doing 10K. I'm doing more than that now with fleet tac and sci consoles. Need to re-measure. But for an engineer I'm putting out some solid DPS and can survive where most will not.
Karfi is just the Fleet Corsair taken to the the more tac focused extreme. Same sci boff skill count of 5 (but 1 moves to be higher ranked) and a lot more tac at the expense of engineering.
If you don't spec into threat and use [-Th] consoles an engineer will find this an interesting ship to fly, just don't expect to be able to take many hits unless you're using high end TSS/HE/PH skills.
I need to revisit the Karfi when I eventually get my hands on the Fleet version.
The NON fleet retrofit Corsair I wouldn't touch. Compared to Marauder it's 3k less hull for +1 turn rate and slightly less crew (a good thing with current crew mechanics). Not worth it really.
I disagree, with an engineer at the helm it can make a solid tank, and probably the best boff layout for a healer in the game.
It's a cruiser, not a battle cruiser, 2 tac consoles with 8 weapon slots is the standard load out.
Having said that, using plasma weapons, with 3 fleet sci consoles (could get more with 4) and energy harness I get MORE than 3 tac consoles worth of plasma damage boost despite only having 2 tac console slots. If I use 4 sci's I get effectively 3x fleet tac console boost (bar CrtH/D) plus an extra Common MKXI. So you can boost it up to 4 consoles worth if you try.
It's got the highest turn rate I think of any (non battle) cruiser in the game. Matches the Karfi's turn.
8 slots and low tac options mean broadsiding is basically your only option though, but getting your front 120 arc on target doesn't take much.
The fleet Corsair is an excellent snare-support ship. It gets the Shield Comm Array, is able to use Extend Shields, Eject Warp Plasma(works great with inverted/doffed Tractor Repulsors), Gravity Well, Tractor Beam(s), and launch Orion Interceptors. There are very few ships that can even compare to it in that role. A Science captain in command of one can really change the flow of battle - both offensively and defensively.
If you're strictly after damage though, I would first ask why you're using an FDC =P, and secondly I would say the Kar'fi is a better option.
Fleet Kar'fi is not where you should use the word "just." "Just" should be used on fleet Corsair, as in "Fleet corsair is just a slightly more tanky version of the Marauder that you already have."
Karfi is a unique tac carrier. Being completely different, "just" can't be used when comparing it to anything else. It is officially a member of "Battle Carrier" class that has improved turn rate and ability to fit dhcs, similar to "BattleCruiser" class that sets itself apart from normal Cruiser class in the same fashion. Unlike the BattleCruiser class, which has a lot of ships, the Battle Carrier still consists of only Kar'fi and its fleet variant.
Fleet Kar'fi sets itself further apart from normal carrier than most Battle Cruisers from normal cruisers. Compared to normal carriers, it has one more gun, 4 tac consoles, and almost escort like tac boffs. Compared to normal cruisers, battle cruisers have the same number of guns. Most also have the same (low) number of tac consoles and low tac boffs in favor of more eng.
Don't spend 4 fleet modules on something that is almost identical to what you have already. It's spending 2k zen for almost nothing.
Whether you get the fleet Kar'fi instead is besides the issue. The point is it's different enough that it's something new, and thus not a waste, unlike the fleet corsair. Just save the modules otherwise.
There's a bit of an information vacuum in the OP to be making that call.
In all honesty, if you presume they actually like the Marauder and it's play style, the Fleet Corsair is the closest option along with the Voth Bastion.
Besides, the Fleet Corsair is less of a waste compared to almost all other fleet ship upgrades. This you get a boff seat swap around.
We don't know what career your captain is in, we don't know if you like FDCs in general, how you want to play and you haven't given any clue as to what 'improvements' you're asking about.
If you're wanting a Tier 5+1 Marauder, the fleet Corsair and Voth Bastion are the closest and best upgrade options for you. Karfi is not an improvement per se, think a sideways step to a different play experience. Want to go carrier but remain engy heavy, look at Mirror Vo'Quvs or Obelisk. Want more tac but stay with a single hanger bay, look at the Jem HEC (real nice for engineers).
Fleet Corsair= Versitile, relatively low cost. You can buy fleet modules on the exchange at your leasure. Cruiser commands. For a ship with no universal slots I've found its shockingly verstile.
Fleet Kar'fi= Not as familair with this ship, but flying an infernal ship of the damned straight from Grethor, what's not to like.
Bastion : Lobi store ship I believe so costly.
Bulwork: ditto.
Advanced Obilesk: IMO the best full carrier in the game, but it costs 800 lobi so prepare to part with your soul for it. PS the reason I concider it the best full carrier is for its console. Get the whole set and you share your emergency power 2 x boff powers with your pets.
Retrocorsair= I have it, its biggest selling point is that it costs no money, the only flight deck cruiser which doesn't (unless one got the Maurader during the give away, but tbat's not normally free). It costs 200,000 fleet credits, not that hard to get if you focus). You already have the Maurader so not worth the effort.
O
And to give an idea of what is possibly I'll give you my build.
Tac Captain.
Commander Eng: EP2Ws, Enigeering Team II, Aux2structural II, Reverse Shield Polarity III.h
Lt. Commander Sci: TSS, Siphon Energy, Feedback Pulse.
Lt. Tactical: Torpedo Spread, Cannon Rapid Fire.
Lt. Sci: tractor beam, Tikons Rift.
Ensign Eng: Emergency Power to Shields.
For equiptment I use the Protonic Arsenal, the Joint Dyson Command Tech Set, 2 Elite Fleet Disruptors, 2 or 3 Elite Fleet Disurptor Turrets, Fleet Advanced Photon Mines, the PDS, 3 Romulan +threat consoles plasma particle generators, 2 Fleet Elite RCS controllers, 1 fleet Elite Nuetronium Armour, 1 purple Autotargeting console (dis), 1 vulnerablity locator tac console. And occasionally I'll trade out a turret cor the Bioneural Warhead for whimsy sake.
Doffs are 2 purple maintance enigeers (reduced cd for eng team and improved healing), 1 projectile doff torp, 2 escort Flight Deck officers, and 1 quick launch flight deck officer.
I find this combo to be very effective.
I have lots of healing, good dps, some control, some power draining,
I have them both for my Orion, they're a bit similar with the difference that the Marauder is mostly better used for heavy tanking and attracting fire, while the Corsair can be quite good with science abilities as well, so it can play as support, drain or CC while is still able to soak up damage and tank.
Think of them as: Marauder - Engineering Cruiser, Corsair - Science Cruiser.
The Corsair has the advantage of being a fleet ship, so +1 console and +0.1 shield mod while they have the same hull values. And the Corsair looks better, IMHO.
Now, if they make a fleet Dacoit...that's another story.
Following standard "Fleet-ing it up" of ships (+10% hull, +10% shield mod, +1 console)...
Hull: 42900
Shield Mod: 1.1
Console Layout (Cmdr/LCdr Eng BOFF Layout): 2 Tac, 5 Eng, 3 Sci
Now that would be a fun comparison, between the Fleet Marauder and Fleet Corsair, eh?
Also, as mentioned...it would be curious to see a Fleet Dacoit join the bunch.
Eng Heavy: F.Marauder
Sci Heavy: F.Corsair
"Tac Heavy": F. Dacoit
All the yes goes to this idea.
I really do like the FDC playstyle in general, as it seems to me to be a solid mix between direct damage, debuffing, pet spawning, and tanking. Granted, they don't do any of those extremely well (perhaps besides tanking, I've survived Tac Cube explosions in my face in a Marauder, after getting the shields sucked out of me), but it can do all of them at once.
That, and some extra customization options and Cryptic's got me hooked.
Oh I like that idea, while not a fan of the Marauder, yeah I know I'm shallow and it is only due to looks, I'd love to see the Dacoit as a tac heavy FDC. I have the Corsair though I must admit been using the Mogh more than it these days.
+1 all that
For a Fleet Dacoit, I'd be thinking something along the lines of:
Hull: 39,000 (Tac ships usually have higher hulls vs sci ships, however keeping same as Corsair to allow higher turn rate)
Shield mod: 1.1
Console layout: 3 tac, 3 sci, 4 eng
Boff layout: Com, En, Ltc, Lt, Lt, -OR- Com, En, Lt, Lt LtC
Turn rate: 9
Cruiser commands: Weapons Efficiency, Shield Modulation
Impulse modifier: 0.18
That second boff layout is probably most suitable thematically. Lots of eng to cover it's cruiser status. Doubling of tac boff powers to show it's tac orientation and an LtC sci to cover it's hanger focus (carriers are normally sci leaning).
Lt.Cmd. Tac
Cmd. Eng
Lt.Cmd Sci
En. Sci
En. Uni
I use my Corsair as a snaring heal/tank-boat with Inverted/doffed Tractor Repulsors, Eject Warp Plasma, Orion Interceptors, and the Hirogen Set. It definitely requires a bit of finesse to fly well and properly 'collect' ships(positioning and throttle control are critical), but it is quite effective at clumping things up for people to rain AoE death upon once you get the hang of it. It's way more effective than using gravity wells - both in immobilizing targets close together and in raw damage from the repulsors and warp plasma.
Nice thought but 2x LtC is too OP. Reserved for full carriers, not single hanger ships.
Per a thing I did a while back, boff layouts typically have to hit a 'potency' level to keep layouts fair and even.
23 is the arbitrary potency number I came up with that appears to be the standard, your arrangement would be over powered at 24.
You can have these seats Com, LtC, Lt, Lt, En in any profession configuration basically.
Things that deviate from that default are carriers or sci ships that lack 2 weapon slots and often light on tac output, so beefier boff layout to compensate. Or BoPs that make the trade off of being underpowered at 22 for Uni, or OP of the fleet version presumably to make up for the squishy.
I'm pretty happy with my Corsair as it is right now, all things considered(aside from the lack of an Orion Interior/Bridge). Tactical-heavy ships just really don't seem to fit the Orion MO - even the Interceptors use beam arrays instead of aggressive forward cannons.
:O maybe that's what a Fleet Dacoit could be!
As a side note, two LtC slots are for rommies. Or fleet Norgh.
pwebranflakes: this system is currently in place and working the way it should.
moradum: I got banned for saying "I started my day with cutting off 3 MM off of the bottom of my cabinet"