Hirogen Hunter Heavy or JHAS?

pottman101

I'm using a Hirogen Hunter Heavy right now, but out of sheer luck I also have a JHAS still in the box. I hear the JHAS is the greatest escort in game, but I'm also tempted to sell the JHAS and keep using the Hirogen Escort. I know, I know, do what ever I want with it, but I'd like some advice before I do something I might regret.

epsilonia

pottman101 wrote: »

I'm using a Hirogen Hunter Heavy right now, but out sheer luck I also have a JHAS still in the box. I hear the JHAS is the great escort in game, but I'm also tempted to sell the JHAS and keep using the Hirogen Escort. I know, I know, do what ever I want with it, but I'd like some advice before I do something I might regret.

Sell it, but not while the market is saturated with others trying to do the same. An ounce of patience will get you more for your ship.

warmaker001b

The JHAS is still one of the best ships in the game, though its lofty position has been equaled, IMO (hello Overpowered Romulan Warbirds).

That said, if you keep it for later play, it will be a powerful ship. Fastest ship in the game outside the Risian Corvette alongside KDF BOP-like maneuverability, rugged, very hard hitting. But if you sell it, as someone mentioned earlier, wait a bit for the market to go up on it. During promos where Cryptic w-TRIBBLE$ out the JHAS, the exchange costs go down on the bugship. But after a while, they go back up when the promo is done.

Hirogen Hunter has a fantabulous BOFF layout. Not as fast as other Escorts (.19 impulse mod vs .2 of others), but above average turn rate. The ship looks damn awful, but damn, that BOFF layout spins the wheels on creativity. The ship is dirt cheap now, too.

dracounguis

JHAS is good/best but not 340M better than the Hirogen one, imo.
OR unless you are just really big on Jem'hadar and plan to get the JHDC and want the JHAS pets for it.

If you can sell it for 400M you'd be able to buy the next 4-6 lockbox ships off the exchange! So decide which you'd prefer. Personally, no matter how OP a ship is, I get tired of using it after awhile and want something new.

unangbangkay

dracounguis wrote: »

JHAS is good/best but not 340M better than the Hirogen one, imo.
OR unless you are just really big on Jem'hadar and plan to get the JHDC and want the JHAS pets for it.

If you can sell it for 400M you'd be able to buy the next 4-6 lockbox ships off the exchange! So decide which you'd prefer. Personally, no matter how OP a ship is, I get tired of using it after awhile and want something new.

Agreed. Just sell the thing, because if there's any ship that's come close to the Bug's performance, I'd say it's the Hunter.

Why? Both its strengths and weaknesses are perfectly tuned to running an Aux2Batt build.

Most escort ships don't really mesh well with Aux2Batt because they already have lots of tactical slots and few Engineering slots to take advantage of things like the Dulmer/DEM trick.

The Hunter has 1 Tac commander, but an Engi LtC and a Universal Lt, perfect for running a single or even double copy of Aux2Batt (though given the lack of science slots you may get more mileage out of going single and slotting science for the heals). This means that your 4 Tac commander abilities can benefit from low cooldowns and maintain their cycles without having to run extra copies or "waste" tactical slots on abilities you don't need.

This makes the hunter able to go hard Tactical and still retain strong engineering powers. It's also good as a beam-centric escort, running Tac Team/APB/FAW3/APO3 in the Tac slot with Engi Team/Aux2batt/DEM+Dulmur in the Engi slot, HE1/Science Team in the uni Lt, and Beam Overload or Torp Spread in the uni ensign.

It's wonderful flexibility and durability at the cost of a bit of turn rate.

rck01

Another vote for the Hirogen Heavy. Simply the best escort in the game thanks to a combination of solid engineering support and excellent base stats (turn rate, shield mod, hull strength, etc).

Consider my current build:

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=rckhirorevb_0

This ship, in a hybrid A2B/A2D beam-scort configuration, has me wrecking havoc all over Ker'rat and the PvP queues. It truly is the ultimate "bug killer" platform. With a buffed turn rate of 136, I can keep a full broadside lock on all but the very best players in the game (most of whom fly the JHAS in various configurations).

So I say hang onto the bug, but don't do anything to bind it to your account/toon. It will always have a certain mystique attached to it, and that will help prop up the price as the market becomes less saturated. But in terms of being the "best" escort platform in the game, that torch has been passed to the Hirogen Heavy (IMHO).

RCK

unangbangkay

rck01 wrote: »

Another vote for the Hirogen Heavy. Simply the best escort in the game thanks to a combination of solid engineering support and excellent base stats (turn rate, shield mod, hull strength, etc).

Consider my current build:

http://skillplanner.stoacademy.com/?build=rckhirorevb_0

This ship, in a hybrid A2B/A2D beam-scort configuration, has me wrecking havoc all over Ker'rat and the PvP queues. It truly is the ultimate "bug killer" platform. With a buffed turn rate of 136, I can keep a full broadside lock on all but the very best players in the game (most of whom fly the JHAS in various configurations).

So I say hang onto the bug, but don't do anything to bind it to your account/toon. It will always have a certain mystique attached to it, and that will help prop up the price as the market becomes less saturated. But in terms of being the "best" escort platform in the game, that torch has been passed to the Hirogen Heavy (IMHO).

RCK

Very nice build! I've always wanted to try a beamscort, and I just lucked into a Hunter myself. A few questions, though:

1. How is it with cannons?
2. Where's your backflip console
3. Have you considered replacing your polarize hull with a tractor beam or other science skill? You already have APO to take off movement debuffs.
4. Maybe you should consider switching your Transfer Shield Strength for Science Team. Emergency Power to Shields should be able to handle your needs for shield resistance buffs.
5. What are your doffs? Do you have Marion? If you don't maybe eject warp plasma or even engineering team 3 might be a good idea for even more survivability.

rck01

unangbangkay wrote: »

Very nice build! I've always wanted to try a beamscort, and I just lucked into a Hunter myself. A few questions, though:

1. How is it with cannons?
2. Where's your backflip console
3. Have you considered replacing your polarize hull with a tractor beam or other science skill? You already have APO to take off movement debuffs.
4. Maybe you should consider switching your Transfer Shield Strength for Science Team. Emergency Power to Shields should be able to handle your needs for shield resistance buffs.
5. What are your doffs? Do you have Marion? If you don't maybe eject warp plasma or even engineering team 3 might be a good idea for even more survivability.

Thanks! It's a blast to fly...as for your questions:

1. Does fine with cannons, but I'm not very good at aiming, so...
2. First thing I removed - waste of a console slot, IMO.
3. I like having PH as a backup for when APO is on CD and I get grabbed. Also, the resist buff is a nice booster when getting hull ripped by the Elachi proc.
4. Already did that - need to update the build page (always forgetting something)
5. 3 Purple Techs, 1 WCE (EPtX), 1 AMS (for A2D) and either Marion or an RSP doff (depending on whether I swap out DEM2 for RSP1).

Truly a one-of-a-kind ship. Was waiting for exactly such a platform to allow me to migrate my cruiser tactics and gear over to a smaller, nimbler ship. Just love it...

RCK