The Armitage and the third tac

fovrel

I am talking about the third tactical bridge officer, the ensign. It is a little let down for this beautiful and fine ship. What can we do with this officer?

If you use cannons a third tactical team is overcomplete. I presume you already have tactical team on the other tactical officers. So we are left with torpedo spread I or torpedo high yield 1. Well, If I use a torpedo weapon, even if it is only one, I would like the rank 2 or 3 for these skills.

This tac ensign drives this ship into a beamscort build. With beams and a beam weapons or engines rank 1 you get the most bang for your bucks. However it means a limitation on versality when it comes to builds for this ship. And that is only because of one tactical ensign.

I propose to change this boff slot to a universal, or at least a science or engineer slot. With the separated cooldown on tac, science and enginering team, it would give the ship an nice upgrade, without making it overpowered.

tenkari

the point of these third tac slot escorts is to get people to do more than a pure DHC/Turret build, toss in a torp, or even a DBB and take a BO1.

thats the reason cryptic made 'em, to give a bigger variety to escorts instead "I need all cannons/turrets or I suck"

ussboleyn

While it's true that the ensign tac kinda goes to waste unless you use a torpedo or a beam, it does let you use a 3rd embassy Romulan with superior rom operative.

deadhorse1

Try the omni directional antiproton beam array in place of a turret, and beam fire at will 1. It will have more dps then your regular turrets and you can turn it into another point defense system every 30ish seconds. Great for taking out pets or getting a lot of aggro in Mirror Universe event.

kalvorax

deadhorse1 wrote: »

Try the omni directional antiproton beam array in place of a turret, and beam fire at will 1. It will have more dps then your regular turrets and you can turn it into another point defense system every 30ish seconds. Great for taking out pets or getting a lot of aggro in Mirror Universe event.

mmm never thought of that...i always use it for SST lol

riccardo171

Totally agree with the OP, the ensign should go universal and give a bit of flexibility to escorts. Same goes for Defiant and Prometheus

ltdata96

That's what actually prevents me from buying. I've been looking for a ship a bit quicker and more Tac in focus as my usual choices (mostly cruisers ) - and i love the design.

Problem is that 3rd tac ensign. I would much preferably use it to boost survivability.
And...
Cannon-only-layout ... Ruined
Beam-only-layout ... Ruined also (i only need 6 Tac stations for such a Layout)

orondis

Yeah, unlike a lot of the fleet ships it lacks an universal slot.

warmaker001b

3 TAC BOFF slotted ships are pretty much geared for ships with the whole spectrum of weapons. Cannons, Beams, Torps/Mines. Most other things in such ships won't be as efficient. But realize, the Akira Retro/Fleet Akira is the only Fed Escort with LtCdr ENG to go with it.

fatman592

I have a FHEC and loved it, until I started to PvP here and there. I eventually got a Mobius but if the ensign tac became a uni or an eng I'd be flying the FHEC for everything. I run an aux to dampers build on my Mobius and need those 4 eng seats to do it well. Both ships have the same turn rate and I'd gain Yellowstones.

Really, every fleet ship should have at least one universal slot...

noblet

Ever thought of fitting a torp? Something you might find interesting: 1 romulan torp with 2x torp spread and 0 tac consoles far outdps 2 dhcs with 2x csv and 5 tac consoles, on shielded targets, without counting in each green ball's aoe.;)

organicmanfred

There is something I had in mind because of this Ensign Boff no Cannon ability.

We have this Hot Pursuit trait/skill from the Hirogen box.

Why not make a Cannon trait/skill? Wider arc for DCs, DHCS or something.

intrinsical

Having 3 tac boffs makes the armitage one of the highest dps fed ship in the game.

doomicile

It's a good Engie Escort.

It packs decent DPS but can still take a beating.

If it were a pure DPS ship, then you'd lose some survivability.

It's a fair tradeoff.

There's a lot of ships out there with a seemingly useless Ensign Tac Boff. It hurts the Defiant way more than the HEC.

warmaker001b

organicmanfred wrote: »

There is something I had in mind because of this Ensign Boff no Cannon ability.

We have this Hot Pursuit trait/skill from the Hirogen box.

Why not make a Cannon trait/skill? Wider arc for DCs, DHCS or something.

That will have all kinds of balance issues. To take the highest focus damage weapons and make them easy to use in close proximity with wider arcs is asking for many bad things to happen.

fatman592 wrote: »

I have a FHEC and loved it, until I started to PvP here and there. I eventually got a Mobius but if the ensign tac became a uni or an eng I'd be flying the FHEC for everything. I run an aux to dampers build on my Mobius and need those 4 eng seats to do it well. Both ships have the same turn rate and I'd gain Yellowstones.

Really, every fleet ship should have at least one universal slot...

No.

What YOU want to fly is a Fleet Patrol Escort, Fleet Saber, or one of those balanced out ships. It has a friggin LtCdr ENG BOFF station already with a very well balanced 4/3/3 console layout. What the hell more do you want? 2 hangars? Lt ENG? 4 ENG Consoles???

The Akira is fine.

It's just you.

gogereaver

yep i got the c-store one. the fighter's the massive torp spread abilty. the ship was made to TRIBBLE you over when your shield facing is down. but yea that extra slot is for a torp like the Borg quick firing plasma ones. or a beam array as some said the 360 one is really good to replace a turret with.

age03

I use mine for torpedo spread.

nagrom7

age03 wrote: »

I use mine for torpedo spread.

I fly a FHEC, it makes an amazing torpedo boat, just saying.

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fatman592

warmaker001b wrote: »

No.

What YOU want to fly is a Fleet Patrol Escort, Fleet Saber, or one of those balanced out ships. It has a friggin LtCdr ENG BOFF station already with a very well balanced 4/3/3 console layout. What the hell more do you want? 2 hangars? Lt ENG? 4 ENG Consoles???

The Akira is fine.

It's just you.

Lol what?

All I said I wanted was an ensign universal so I could run an Aux2Damp build. I didn't realize it would cause such rage...

The ship is just bad for PvP is all I'm saying (and so are the other ships you listed, but then, everything looks bad when you're not a Romulan these days).

age03 wrote: »

I use mine for torpedo spread.

Agreed, if you're doing PvE content, that third seat is definitely best utilized with a torpedo spread. I still use the FHEC with a grav torp and torp spread 1 on one of my alts.

shandypandy

fatman592 wrote: »

Lol what?

All I said I wanted was an ensign universal so I could run an Aux2Damp build. I didn't realize it would cause such rage...

The ship is just bad for PvP is all I'm saying (and so are the other ships you listed, but then, everything looks bad when you're not a Romulan these days).



Agreed, if you're doing PvE content, that third seat is definitely best utilized with a torpedo spread. I still use the FHEC with a grav torp and torp spread 1 on one of my alts.

Aux2damp starts at lt, not ensign.

fatman592

shandypandy wrote: »

Aux2damp starts at lt, not ensign.

Right, which is why I need 4 seats. Both ensigns for EPtX abilities, Lt and Lt Cmdr are Aux2Damp (for the constant buff). I need all that to occasionally survive vapes and dogfight better ships.

age03

This is how I use mine like my Defiant.

http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=age1_3105

orangeitis

Either use a torp/DBB or have a useless 3rd tac slot, those are your choices.

Personally, I use a wide-angle Quantum with torp spread.

shandypandy

fatman592 wrote: »

Right, which is why I need 4 seats. Both ensigns for EPtX abilities, Lt and Lt Cmdr are Aux2Damp (for the constant buff). I need all that to occasionally survive vapes and dogfight better ships.

Ah, OK. Fair do's.

You could just (a few million EC's "just") whack a matter antimatter doff on and use one a2damp. Its only a seven second gap. If you use the Maco engines and deflector its 5.5, which is near enough the gap on one copy of aux2sif.

Basically, i dobt think they going to make that ensign a universal.

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ursusmorologus

Sometimes I put a torpedo in the rear, with either spread 1 or high-yield 1. It lets me shoot things as I go past, or I can drop a surprise in somebody's face if they get on my tail, and its usually more effective than another turret or mines. I dont like putting torps on the front unless I am building around torpedo damage primarily, so this solves the problem. The 360 AP beam is another good suggestion if you are already using AP.

kimmym

Ursus beat me to both solutions.

If you don't want to give up 4 front DHC on a 3 tac boff ship, put a torp on the back or use the 360 AP beam.

I've found, tho, sticking one DBB up front and using Target Engines in the ensign slot, and BO3, is a nice setup. You get the strong BO3, and can use the Target Engines on its downtime. The Target Engines doesn't bring that horrid weapons drain that the weak BO1 forces you to endure.

It's inconvenient at first, but the hangar bay and ability to load a lt com eng ability (Ooooh, EP2W3 or EP2E3? Yes please!) can more than make up for the minor loss of the fourth DHC.

Edit: Probly can't fit the BO3 on an Armatage without losing too much, I was thinking of my Defiant at that moment... Still, the Target Sub Systems is an option. DBB's do ok DPS just set to fire. It's no DHC, but its really not that far behind.