It would depend. My main is a science captain and I spend most of my time in Ker'rat, so the FPE-R is a perfect fit for that toon.
The Kumari line still out damages most escorts. The Armitage has more potential damage if you slot SRO boffs and crowd control with Yellowstones. The Defiant has the cloak and thus is far superior for tactical captains to deliver alphas. JHAS and the Hunter are still superior cross-faction ships. The Nicor is a better beam platform.
Overall there are far better ships for various different needs. The FPE doesn't even come close to game-breaking like the Scimitar is.
Overall there are far better ships for various different needs. The FPE doesn't even come close to game-breaking like the Scimitar is.
The Avenger isnt game-breaking in the same way as the Scimitar either but its still the answer to every cruiser build and thus it is obviously harmful to gameplay and as such it is game-breaking in its own way. I would say the PEr is in the same category as that, would you agree?
I dont see any balance to it at all. Other fedscorts can do some specific things better but none of them are the answer to every build like this thing.
ps--I dont mean they are mediocre at everything either, I mean they are GOOD at everything, no real weakness at all, so no cost for choosing it as the answer.
The Avenger isnt game-breaking in the same way as the Scimitar either but its still the answer to every cruiser build and thus it is obviously harmful to gameplay and as such it is game-breaking in its own way. I would say the PEr is in the same category as that, would you agree?
I dont see any balance to it at all. Other fedscorts can do some specific things better but none of them are the answer to every build like this thing.
ps--I dont mean they are mediocre at everything either, I mean they are GOOD at everything, no real weakness at all, so no cost for choosing it as the answer.
No, the FPER is not even remotely the default escort for Feds. There are drawbacks:
1. No triple tac boff seating for SROs.
2. No Ensign universal like the Hunter, for proper A2B tac seating and double SROs.
3. Lacks the Alpha power of the Fleet Defiant (4/3 weapon, 5 tac console, 3 SRO ship with a cloak).
4. Lacks the pure dps of the Kumari (5/2 weapon, 5 tac console, 3 SRO ship with damage enhancing consoles).
5. Fused weapon forces the average min/maxer into a phaser build.
6. The fused weapon will never be useful in PvE as no cannon or beam build should spend any time with their aft on target - thus the ship is only really a 4/3 layout in terms of PvE.
7. Lacks a Lt.Cmdr Sci slot for the all important grav well for PvE (Fleet MVAM is probably the best PvE escort with triple SRO seating, 5 tac consoles and grav well 1).
8. The ships strengths play only to a niche, PvP.
It's a great PvP escort. But for the vast majority of the player base, they're wasting their money on an escort just to Aux2Batt. Beam boat cruisers do A2B better with more hull and shield mod; who needs maneuverability for PvE anyway? In any event, the FPER doesn't compete in terms of pure damage.
Regardless, the Avenger is still the king of Fed ships.
No, the FPER is not even remotely the default escort for Feds. There are drawbacks:
1. No triple tac boff seating for SROs.
2. No Ensign universal like the Hunter, for proper A2B tac seating and double SROs.
^^ This! I keep hearing how awesome the boff seating is yet I see it as a liability. I actually prefer having a uni ensign station as I can mix up boff types more easily - in my case, using it to slot PH. I trade 1 SRO bonus for survivability/slipperiness so I can escape the gank in Ker'rat.
I'll never part with my now classic Fleet Patrol Escort, I can live without the tail gun and the nadion bombs
"The meaning of victory is not to merely defeat your enemy but to destroy him, to completely eradicate him from living memory, to leave no remnant of his endeavours, to crush utterly his achievement and remove from all record his every trace of existence. From that defeat no enemy can ever recover. That is the meaning of victory."
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
2 builds of the same ship, capable of running both a A2B build or just running dual copies of what you need. Say a Jem Dread. Ship power levels are 125/75/60/65 (just giving numbers) Ship is equipped with an elite AMP core and plasmonic leech. So with the leech going power levels at +20.
With A2B you are capable of keeping 3 of 4 subsystems above 75 for the AMP. While running a dual copy version you can keep 4 systems all above 75.
Is the 4th subsystem increase going to do more DPS than cycling abilities marginally faster on a 3 purp tech A2B build?
I use to do 100K DPS, but then I took an arrow to the knee.
Your Ramming Speed III deals 242658 (243540) Kinetic Damage (Critical) to you.
^^ This! I keep hearing how awesome the boff seating is yet I see it as a liability. I actually prefer having a uni ensign station as I can mix up boff types more easily - in my case, using it to slot PH. I trade 1 SRO bonus for survivability/slipperiness so I can escape the gank in Ker'rat.
RCK
I think you said you are running a build like this right...
No, the FPER is not even remotely the default escort for Feds. There are drawbacks:
1. No triple tac boff seating for SROs.
2. No Ensign universal like the Hunter, for proper A2B tac seating and double SROs.
3. Lacks the Alpha power of the Fleet Defiant (4/3 weapon, 5 tac console, 3 SRO ship with a cloak).
4. Lacks the pure dps of the Kumari (5/2 weapon, 5 tac console, 3 SRO ship with damage enhancing consoles).
5. Fused weapon forces the average min/maxer into a phaser build.
6. The fused weapon will never be useful in PvE as no cannon or beam build should spend any time with their aft on target - thus the ship is only really a 4/3 layout in terms of PvE.
7. Lacks a Lt.Cmdr Sci slot for the all important grav well for PvE (Fleet MVAM is probably the best PvE escort with triple SRO seating, 5 tac consoles and grav well 1).
8. The ships strengths play only to a niche, PvP.
It's a great PvP escort. But for the vast majority of the player base, they're wasting their money on an escort just to Aux2Batt. Beam boat cruisers do A2B better with more hull and shield mod; who needs maneuverability for PvE anyway? In any event, the FPER doesn't compete in terms of pure damage.
Regardless, the Avenger is still the king of Fed ships.
Defiant is good for nothing. Cloak is just... a cloak provided by a console, triple Tac seating is overkill with useless Ensign tac that is best used for engineering. Kumari has zero resistance, no one flies it, Charal is considered to be better. Fused weapon does not break 4/3 layout. If you can't live without GW1 in PvE well, lol. Tempest has double LtComm boff seating, found nowhere on other escorts.
Turns like a charm, superior shields and hull, hits as hard as a bug and with AtD + doff you get epic turn, immunity to pull and repel, turn rate is enhanced and strengthened as well. There are no drawbacks on Tempest.
^^ This! I keep hearing how awesome the boff seating is yet I see it as a liability. I actually prefer having a uni ensign station as I can mix up boff types more easily - in my case, using it to slot PH. I trade 1 SRO bonus for survivability/slipperiness so I can escape the gank in Ker'rat.
RCK
Sorry mate, but Lt + Ensign is inferior to LtComm. there's a huge difference between EPtS1 in ensign and EPtS3 in LtComm.
Defiant is good for nothing. Cloak is just... a cloak provided by a console, triple Tac seating is overkill with useless Ensign tac that is best used for engineering. Kumari has zero resistance, no one flies it, Charal is considered to be better. Fused weapon does not break 4/3 layout. If you can't live without GW1 in PvE well, lol. Tempest has double LtComm boff seating, found nowhere on other escorts.
Turns like a charm, superior shields and hull, hits as hard as a bug and with AtD + doff you get epic turn, immunity to pull and repel, turn rate is enhanced and strengthened as well. There are no drawbacks on Tempest.
Not saying the ship isn't good. However, there are still ships that do some things better. Most of the ships I listed, will out-damage the FPER any day of the week when set up properly. Triple tac seating means more Superior Operatives from the Embassy, which means more crth/crtd, which means more damage.
Having a grav well is nice for PvE; no need to mock me for using a good crowd control ability.
The FPER sacrifices raw damage potential for more tanking. Other escorts sacrifice tanking for more damage. Unless I've missed something, the Avenger is still the default ship for Feds. Until I see the FPER everywhere and the Avenger nowhere, I think it's safe to say the FPER is not the default answer to "what ship should I get".
I love the ship and I think it is very good, but in no way is a default choice or over powered. Like I have said many times, the ship is great for PvP and just an okay choice for PvE.
I don't understand how anyone can see the FPER as powercreep.
Finally broke down and got it. Awesome ship. Nadion Bomb is surprisingly good for a console ability.
Old Fleet Patrol was my fav escort. Been moving all my toons back to escorts, so tired of the BFAW spam on each of my ships. and all around in general. So NOT running this as a beamscort. lol
No A2B, just a good solid Escort. Tailgun is just a bonus here and there. But Nadion Bomb is awesome in grouped up enemies.
I love the ship and I think it is very good, but in no way is a default choice or over powered. Like I have said many times, the ship is great for PvP and just an okay choice for PvE.
I don't understand how anyone can see the FPER as powercreep.
Assuming typical layout with 4/3 tac, you have Ltc engi and Lt sci, which means 2x EPtX at full uptime plus RSP/ET/AtS for tanking. The only other fedscort that can do that is the Fleet HEC, which is slower and clumsier than the FPEr. The Defiant and Advanced Escort cannot run EPtX full uptime w/ a heal, since they only have Lt engi. Almost everybody would rather have a engi or sci (or uni) instead of the ensign tac, cause for a kill-boat layout its a dead socket--you cant use 3rd Tac Team, and giving up a turret for rear-firing torp is stupid, BO1 is stupid, etc. Look at Charal vs Kumari, very few recommend the Kumari; the ensign engi is worth more than the tac console.
The areas where the other fedscorts (not lockboxes) are better, they are marginally better at specific things, and give up everything for it. FTER is marginally better at strike builds, since it has +1 turn-rate and a cloak console that is uesful for alpha in PVP (too expensive to slot in PVE), but it cant keep itself alive and requires a healer on the team to use effectively otherwise you are just putting points on the enemy's scoreboard.
Advanced Escort is a complete loss comparitvely, being unable to heal itself unless it uses the extra sci staiton for heal instead of offense capability, at which point... whats the point again? Oh it can run a weapons heavy build with a LtC grade offensive sci if there is a healer on the team. Meanwhile the FPEr can run a 3/2 sci loadout if desired, which puts it on par with the Fleet Dhelan that smokes the FAE. TB1/TBR1 with ST1/HE2/TSS3 works for anything and makes you very robust, or replace TSS3 with GW1 for PVE and work the whole field NP.
The problem, per usual for Cryptic, is there's no real downside to it. It is better at 80% of what the other fedscorts want to do, and the other 20% is only worthwhile if you are committed to a specific narrow style of play. FPEr is the answer to every escort build question. Cryptic wont even give the other ships uni ensign, and they give this one the ability to transform into anything you'd want the others to be. Avenger all over again, first answer to every question, same thing here.
Just occured to me that this is nearly the perfect Fed platform for NWS
TT1, BFaW2, BFaW3, APB3 (assuming DBBs, could use CSV instead) EPtS1, EPtW2, AtS2 PH1, TBR1, GW1 HE1, TSS2
No other Fed ship can do that. Ships that get close on Tac/Sci dont have the slots to keep themselves alive (nevermind healing the transport), while ships that have the Engi/Sci dont have the tactical layout. This is close to Fleet D'Deridex for flexibility and power, but with a good turn-rate.
I would like to know fron those who have the new Patrol escort: Do you use Phaser weapons just to boost the Tail gun and console or do you use other more efficient weapons ?
Defiant is good for nothing. Cloak is just... a cloak provided by a console, triple Tac seating is overkill with useless Ensign tac that is best used for engineering. Kumari has zero resistance, no one flies it, Charal is considered to be better. Fused weapon does not break 4/3 layout. If you can't live without GW1 in PvE well, lol. Tempest has double LtComm boff seating, found nowhere on other escorts.
Turns like a charm, superior shields and hull, hits as hard as a bug and with AtD + doff you get epic turn, immunity to pull and repel, turn rate is enhanced and strengthened as well. There are no drawbacks on Tempest.
Sorry mate, but Lt + Ensign is inferior to LtComm. there's a huge difference between EPtS1 in ensign and EPtS3 in LtComm.
Ships like the Defiant, Prometheus, Andorian Escorts are for the savvy players that know what they're doing to maximize these ships' firepower yet still survive.
Just because you don't see many people fly these ships as much compared to the "safe" choices... which I refer to the Fed Escorts with generous ENG stations to keep you inexperienced folks alive... does not mean ships like the Defiant aren't viable.
But only in the right hands of good players that know how to bring the most out of anything they fly.
Otherwise, if you don't, just keep flying the Escorts with all the ENG stations in the quadrant to keep yourself alive.
You can take a ship like the Defiant and maximize the extremely generous TAC stations to put out a team carrying focused damage output, yet still fly her fast enough, savvy enough that you don't die while others in more ENG heavy ships are popping like a popcorn machine.
You can survive when your only hull repair is a single Hazard Emitter. If you don't know how to survive on that, by all means, take the "safe route."
I would like to know fron those who have the new Patrol escort: Do you use Phaser weapons just to boost the Tail gun and console or do you use other more efficient weapons ?
If you want to use the bombing consoles, you must spec for Phasers to make the most of it. If the console doesn't interest you at all, then use whatever weapons you want and spec for it. The tail phaser dual cannon is worthless and about as useful as using a paper bag as a space suit.
Comments
It would depend. My main is a science captain and I spend most of my time in Ker'rat, so the FPE-R is a perfect fit for that toon.
The Kumari line still out damages most escorts. The Armitage has more potential damage if you slot SRO boffs and crowd control with Yellowstones. The Defiant has the cloak and thus is far superior for tactical captains to deliver alphas. JHAS and the Hunter are still superior cross-faction ships. The Nicor is a better beam platform.
Overall there are far better ships for various different needs. The FPE doesn't even come close to game-breaking like the Scimitar is.
The Avenger isnt game-breaking in the same way as the Scimitar either but its still the answer to every cruiser build and thus it is obviously harmful to gameplay and as such it is game-breaking in its own way. I would say the PEr is in the same category as that, would you agree?
I dont see any balance to it at all. Other fedscorts can do some specific things better but none of them are the answer to every build like this thing.
ps--I dont mean they are mediocre at everything either, I mean they are GOOD at everything, no real weakness at all, so no cost for choosing it as the answer.
No, the FPER is not even remotely the default escort for Feds. There are drawbacks:
1. No triple tac boff seating for SROs.
2. No Ensign universal like the Hunter, for proper A2B tac seating and double SROs.
3. Lacks the Alpha power of the Fleet Defiant (4/3 weapon, 5 tac console, 3 SRO ship with a cloak).
4. Lacks the pure dps of the Kumari (5/2 weapon, 5 tac console, 3 SRO ship with damage enhancing consoles).
5. Fused weapon forces the average min/maxer into a phaser build.
6. The fused weapon will never be useful in PvE as no cannon or beam build should spend any time with their aft on target - thus the ship is only really a 4/3 layout in terms of PvE.
7. Lacks a Lt.Cmdr Sci slot for the all important grav well for PvE (Fleet MVAM is probably the best PvE escort with triple SRO seating, 5 tac consoles and grav well 1).
8. The ships strengths play only to a niche, PvP.
It's a great PvP escort. But for the vast majority of the player base, they're wasting their money on an escort just to Aux2Batt. Beam boat cruisers do A2B better with more hull and shield mod; who needs maneuverability for PvE anyway? In any event, the FPER doesn't compete in terms of pure damage.
Regardless, the Avenger is still the king of Fed ships.
^^ This! I keep hearing how awesome the boff seating is yet I see it as a liability. I actually prefer having a uni ensign station as I can mix up boff types more easily - in my case, using it to slot PH. I trade 1 SRO bonus for survivability/slipperiness so I can escape the gank in Ker'rat.
RCK
-Lord Commander Solar Macharius
2 builds of the same ship, capable of running both a A2B build or just running dual copies of what you need. Say a Jem Dread. Ship power levels are 125/75/60/65 (just giving numbers) Ship is equipped with an elite AMP core and plasmonic leech. So with the leech going power levels at +20.
With A2B you are capable of keeping 3 of 4 subsystems above 75 for the AMP. While running a dual copy version you can keep 4 systems all above 75.
Is the 4th subsystem increase going to do more DPS than cycling abilities marginally faster on a 3 purp tech A2B build?
Your Ramming Speed III deals 242658 (243540) Kinetic Damage (Critical) to you.
I think you said you are running a build like this right...
Hunter:
TT1, CRF1, BO3, APO3
EPtE1, AtB1, RSP2
EPtS1, AtD1
ST1, HE2
PH1
Turn of 17
New Patrol:
TT1, CRF1, BO3, APO3
EPtE1, AtB1, RSP2
ET1, AtD1, EPtS3
PH1, HE2
Turn of 16
As you can see, you lose a Sci Team but gain an Eng Team and upgrade your EPtS1 to an EPtS3.
You also seem to think that just because you have 5 tac console slots you to put tac consoles in those slot.
I very much doubt you will be using more than 2 Eng console.
≡/\≡
Defiant is good for nothing. Cloak is just... a cloak provided by a console, triple Tac seating is overkill with useless Ensign tac that is best used for engineering. Kumari has zero resistance, no one flies it, Charal is considered to be better. Fused weapon does not break 4/3 layout. If you can't live without GW1 in PvE well, lol. Tempest has double LtComm boff seating, found nowhere on other escorts.
Turns like a charm, superior shields and hull, hits as hard as a bug and with AtD + doff you get epic turn, immunity to pull and repel, turn rate is enhanced and strengthened as well. There are no drawbacks on Tempest.
Sorry mate, but Lt + Ensign is inferior to LtComm. there's a huge difference between EPtS1 in ensign and EPtS3 in LtComm.
Not saying the ship isn't good. However, there are still ships that do some things better. Most of the ships I listed, will out-damage the FPER any day of the week when set up properly. Triple tac seating means more Superior Operatives from the Embassy, which means more crth/crtd, which means more damage.
Having a grav well is nice for PvE; no need to mock me for using a good crowd control ability.
The FPER sacrifices raw damage potential for more tanking. Other escorts sacrifice tanking for more damage. Unless I've missed something, the Avenger is still the default ship for Feds. Until I see the FPER everywhere and the Avenger nowhere, I think it's safe to say the FPER is not the default answer to "what ship should I get".
I love the ship and I think it is very good, but in no way is a default choice or over powered. Like I have said many times, the ship is great for PvP and just an okay choice for PvE.
I don't understand how anyone can see the FPER as powercreep.
Old Fleet Patrol was my fav escort. Been moving all my toons back to escorts, so tired of the BFAW spam on each of my ships. and all around in general. So NOT running this as a beamscort. lol
No A2B, just a good solid Escort. Tailgun is just a bonus here and there. But Nadion Bomb is awesome in grouped up enemies.
Assuming typical layout with 4/3 tac, you have Ltc engi and Lt sci, which means 2x EPtX at full uptime plus RSP/ET/AtS for tanking. The only other fedscort that can do that is the Fleet HEC, which is slower and clumsier than the FPEr. The Defiant and Advanced Escort cannot run EPtX full uptime w/ a heal, since they only have Lt engi. Almost everybody would rather have a engi or sci (or uni) instead of the ensign tac, cause for a kill-boat layout its a dead socket--you cant use 3rd Tac Team, and giving up a turret for rear-firing torp is stupid, BO1 is stupid, etc. Look at Charal vs Kumari, very few recommend the Kumari; the ensign engi is worth more than the tac console.
The areas where the other fedscorts (not lockboxes) are better, they are marginally better at specific things, and give up everything for it. FTER is marginally better at strike builds, since it has +1 turn-rate and a cloak console that is uesful for alpha in PVP (too expensive to slot in PVE), but it cant keep itself alive and requires a healer on the team to use effectively otherwise you are just putting points on the enemy's scoreboard.
Advanced Escort is a complete loss comparitvely, being unable to heal itself unless it uses the extra sci staiton for heal instead of offense capability, at which point... whats the point again? Oh it can run a weapons heavy build with a LtC grade offensive sci if there is a healer on the team. Meanwhile the FPEr can run a 3/2 sci loadout if desired, which puts it on par with the Fleet Dhelan that smokes the FAE. TB1/TBR1 with ST1/HE2/TSS3 works for anything and makes you very robust, or replace TSS3 with GW1 for PVE and work the whole field NP.
The problem, per usual for Cryptic, is there's no real downside to it. It is better at 80% of what the other fedscorts want to do, and the other 20% is only worthwhile if you are committed to a specific narrow style of play. FPEr is the answer to every escort build question. Cryptic wont even give the other ships uni ensign, and they give this one the ability to transform into anything you'd want the others to be. Avenger all over again, first answer to every question, same thing here.
TT1, BFaW2, BFaW3, APB3 (assuming DBBs, could use CSV instead)
EPtS1, EPtW2, AtS2
PH1, TBR1, GW1
HE1, TSS2
No other Fed ship can do that. Ships that get close on Tac/Sci dont have the slots to keep themselves alive (nevermind healing the transport), while ships that have the Engi/Sci dont have the tactical layout. This is close to Fleet D'Deridex for flexibility and power, but with a good turn-rate.
Ships like the Defiant, Prometheus, Andorian Escorts are for the savvy players that know what they're doing to maximize these ships' firepower yet still survive.
Just because you don't see many people fly these ships as much compared to the "safe" choices... which I refer to the Fed Escorts with generous ENG stations to keep you inexperienced folks alive... does not mean ships like the Defiant aren't viable.
They're perfectly viable. They're perfectly deadly.
But only in the right hands of good players that know how to bring the most out of anything they fly.
Otherwise, if you don't, just keep flying the Escorts with all the ENG stations in the quadrant to keep yourself alive.
You can take a ship like the Defiant and maximize the extremely generous TAC stations to put out a team carrying focused damage output, yet still fly her fast enough, savvy enough that you don't die while others in more ENG heavy ships are popping like a popcorn machine.
You can survive when your only hull repair is a single Hazard Emitter. If you don't know how to survive on that, by all means, take the "safe route."
If you want to use the bombing consoles, you must spec for Phasers to make the most of it. If the console doesn't interest you at all, then use whatever weapons you want and spec for it. The tail phaser dual cannon is worthless and about as useful as using a paper bag as a space suit.