Orb Weaver- Opinions?

alfred399

Am thinking of getting one for a fed sci officer, who will be doing PvE and ESTF content only. Wondered what people think of this ship before I drop the EC to buy one. Is it still a viable ship, or have the more recent lockboxes surpassed it?

Any thoughts welcome!

yreodred

It's one of the best science ships availlable IMO.
If you can get along with the unusual appearance and the fact that it is not a starfleet ship, there's nothing wrong with it.

captainoblivous

yreodred wrote: »

It's one of the best science ships availlable IMO.
If you can get along with the unusual appearance and the fact that it is not a starfleet ship, there's nothing wrong with it.

Yup, I've been using one for aeons now and it is still a very unusual boat to see out in the wild.

gooddaytodie39

You don't see a lot of them around but it is an excellent Sci ship. Has great stats and a good BOFF layout. If you like it, go for it!

alfred399

Thanks for the responses so far

Curious as to what weapons and gear you guys run with? I'd think either all beam arrays, or DBBs up front with the 360 degree beam array, Borg KCB plus one other rear should work quite well?

captainoblivous

Arrays, plus the kcb is what I run. It's rarely worth going DBBs unless you're only using the one for a BO strike alpha imo.

neos472

while i have not flown one myself i have heard great things about it i do have the Wells which does the same job
as for gear im not sure id say some of the dyson gear but you always could go all tholian with nukara rep stuff =P

gooddaytodie39

I like using a torp with Sci ships personally, a grav well then torp spread combo does some pretty hefty dmg. I'd go
Fore:
2x Antiproton Beam Array
1x Quantum Torp
Rear:
2x Antiproton Beam Array
1x 360 AP Beam Array
Use the Obelisk Warp Core for the 2pc. AP dmg. boost and the aux boost also goes well with a Sci ship.

Or for fun and to go with the Tholian Theme, you could do all the pieces from the Tholian rep and run 5x Refracting Tetryon Beam Arrays with the Tholian Torp fore. The uni console boosts beam acc. which is always good. If you haven't completed the Tholian rep, that could give you a fun goal to work towards,

til027

I would give it a miss, their prices seem to be very inflated, probably because of the lack of supply. So if you want a science ship, get a palisade or wells and if you want an escort get a Hirogen hunter, nicor or elachi s'golth all are much cheaper, and just as good if not better than the orb.

ussboleyn

IMO the Palisade is a better choice.

stardestroyer001

alfred399 wrote: »

Am thinking of getting one for a fed sci officer, who will be doing PvE and ESTF content only. Wondered what people think of this ship before I drop the EC to buy one. Is it still a viable ship, or have the more recent lockboxes surpassed it?

Any thoughts welcome!

One interesting ship, and one of the few ships I want to get my hands on, just to try it out.

warmaker001b

f2pdrakron wrote: »

Honestly, there is better even on C-Store ships.

Why? look at that BO seating ... a Lt Cmd uni were everything is fixed and that means a ensign tactical that completely insufficient for PvE content.

The Wells have better base stats without being so stuck with a inflexible BO layout ... better turn rate, better shield modifier, better console as am I at it ... nothing that the Orb does thats better at the Wells and everything the Well does is either the same or better that the Orb.

Palisade is also better that the Orb, I would say the Well is still the better choice in the end but still the Palisade offers more flexible BO layout and better stats.

Orb is the weakest of the Lobi Science ships.

I agree with this.

Orb Weaver has been out for quite a long time, maybe about as long as the JHAS, Galor, D'Kora. All these ships have lost ground in Power Creep to newer ships. Most have been completely overtaken.

The Orb Weaver can do the job of a Science Ship. It's just the BOFF seating as you say is not optimal and IMO, a False Choice. Use that LtCdr Universal in anything else, then you're left with a Ensign TAC, and that's worse than the Galaxy-R or any other science ship that I can think of.

Every science ship, every science-heavy carrier, is a better science platform than the Orb Weaver. Most esp. so if you're a Fed Captain, where the science vessel options are rich in very capable options.

I have both the Recluse & Orb Weaver to complete the Tholian ship compliment on my Fed SCI toon. Both from long, long ago. But I've used the Orb Weaver maybe 1-2 times and that's it. The Recluse is a superior Sci platform as well as the other Fed science ships she can access. It's not even a contest.

alfred399

Thanks for your comments everyone, plenty here to think about!

captainoblivous

The orb, with that ltcmdr uni-that-you-just-have-to-use-as-a-tac, strikes me as one of those boats that will never excel at every thing, but can have a decent stab at everything. It could be useful with a tac captain, running apo 1 in the ltcmdr slot?

lan451

f2pdrakron wrote: »

Honestly, there is better even on C-Store ships.

Why? look at that BO seating ... a Lt Cmd uni were everything is fixed and that means a ensign tactical that completely insufficient for PvE content.

The Wells have better base stats without being so stuck with a inflexible BO layout ... better turn rate, better shield modifier, better console as am I at it ... nothing that the Orb does thats better at the Wells and everything the Well does is either the same or better that the Orb.

Palisade is also better that the Orb, I would say the Well is still the better choice in the end but still the Palisade offers more flexible BO layout and better stats.

Orb is the weakest of the Lobi Science ships.

All of this.

When I was shopping for a new sci ship, all of the above are things I kept in mind while checking out each ship. I ended up going all in for the Wells. Haven't regretted it once.

Orb looks sweet, but ultimately falls short of other sci ships.

iconians

Advertisement was misleading. Weaves icosahedrons instead of Orbs. Would not buy again.

cmdrscarlet

I've been looking at the ship for a couple of weeks. Although I don't own one I can imagine it not being "bad" at all.

I was struck by the comment above where the Uni seat would "have" to be Tactical - I consider that to be myopic thinking IF you play the ship solo. It's a big if, of course but only because the player may need to have more flexible thinking to use the ship. Specifically, you could have multiple BOffs available to change that Uni seat depending on situation.

So, sure A Tactical officer when you solo, but (heaven forbid) a Sci officer in a team. You would be sacrificing your own DPS for the sake of others, but how terrible is that? Your actions would contribute to the success of the mssion - put in other words, you are helping others make their jobs easier: the Tactical Captain kills "faster" and the Engineer Captain ... "tanks" ... harder ...

Ok, so the vision kinda falls apart when there are Engineer Captains trying to play like Tactical Captains :P

There may be other ships that are "better", but if you want the ship, then go for it and make it work for you

cmdrscarlet

Wells is ugly. So ... there!

:P

noblet

It's nothing special, certainly not worth what it cost currently.

warmaker001b

cmdrscarlet wrote: »

I've been looking at the ship for a couple of weeks. Although I don't own one I can imagine it not being "bad" at all.

I was struck by the comment above where the Uni seat would "have" to be Tactical - I consider that to be myopic thinking IF you play the ship solo. It's a big if, of course but only because the player may need to have more flexible thinking to use the ship. Specifically, you could have multiple BOffs available to change that Uni seat depending on situation.

So, sure A Tactical officer when you solo, but (heaven forbid) a Sci officer in a team. You would be sacrificing your own DPS for the sake of others, but how terrible is that? Your actions would contribute to the success of the mssion - put in other words, you are helping others make their jobs easier: the Tactical Captain kills "faster" and the Engineer Captain ... "tanks" ... harder ...

Ok, so the vision kinda falls apart when there are Engineer Captains trying to play like Tactical Captains :P

There may be other ships that are "better", but if you want the ship, then go for it and make it work for you

For the notion of "having to use" the Universal station as TAC, it's because of this:

You still have weapons on your ship. Whether you use energy weapons, torps/mines, or some sort of mix. You should be able to cram at least 1 TAC ability to supplement your science abilities (BFAW, BO, TS, etc). Or even if you have even a meager Lt TAC station, that means you can cram something useful like an Attack Pattern Beta, Delta, both supplementing the team, while still having Tac Team. Or maybe Tac Team + Dispersal Pattern Beta 1 for your Nukara Mine (since you ARE running a very high Aux Build). Or maybe forgo Tac Team altogether and have BFAW1 with APB1, be able to land debuffs all around while still pumping out supporting abilities?

But if you use the Orb Weaver's Universal as anything but TAC, you might as well remove all your weapons altogether. A ship with Ensign TAC only is... just... ugh.

Even a very SCI heavy ship such as the Intrepid at least has the option to use Torp Spread 2 for his Dyson Torp + Grav Well attack, and more torps equals more rifts. And it has ample enough Science BOFF seating to put it to good work.

Stuff like that. But a Ensign only TAC station just doesn't do anything for the ship and for the team.

innuwarrior

I have one, its in drydock for ages now. That should tell you how much I like it. Got it from a lockbox, wouldn't pay 150 mil EC for it. Like many others I being drooling over the Wells, just haven't have the EC for it and probably won't have it ever, maybe with one of the hundred of time lockbox I have on my many toons I'll get lucky, otherwise I will continue to use fleet recon sci ship.