Elite Yellowstones vs Delta Flyers

stofsk

I got the Vesta for my science character. I want to equip her with elite runabouts. I'm unsure of which one to go with though. I'm committed to Federation runabouts for RP reasons.

The Yellowstones seem like they'd be a bit useful, a lot of control options and they'd TRIBBLE that tetryon plasma stuff all over the place, but they look a bit pants. Delta Flyers look sexy, but they don't seem like they'd be that useful. I don't hate transphasics as others do, but they don't have much teeth, and I dunno about tachyon beam. On the other hand, four runabouts spamming tachyon beams on the battlefield sounds silly enough that it might actually work :V

ragnar0x

I own both...and i got sick of Yellowstones because they dont eject plasma every time just random 1 in 50 times. Then i bought delta and they are slightly better with their transphasic torps....It would be good if you manually choose when they drop that plasma or smthing, but we know how pet's AI is "great" here.

ursusmorologus

I tend to build with pets that complement the carrier, so to me the choice depends on the rest of the build. For example, my fed engi has a JHEC that relies on beam overload for spike, and Delta Fliers are very good support ships for stripping shields and doing some of their own damage through shields, which complements the carrier nicely, especially in PVP. OTOH my fed tac Armitage has no trouble punching through shields, so he uses the Yellowstones for crowd control support, again especially useful in PVP.

If I had to choose just one I would probably pick the Delta for the higher damage potential, since transphasic will do more consistent damage than chronitons

stofsk

Huh. That's interesting, I would have thought more people would be Yellowstone advocates.

If Yellowstones don't TRIBBLE the tetryon plasma all the time then I'm not seeing a compelling reason to get them. I use an energy siphon and Tyken's Rift build for the Vesta, so there's a bit of overlap with the Delta's tachyon beams. Do pets benefit from my iskill and gear investment? So like will the Deltas have a better tachyon beam if I've maxed flow caps? (or conversely, will the Yellowstone's tetryon plasma do more damage if I've maxed particle gens?)

macronius

stofsk wrote: »

Huh. That's interesting, I would have thought more people would be Yellowstone advocates.

If Yellowstones don't TRIBBLE the tetryon plasma all the time then I'm not seeing a compelling reason to get them. I use an energy siphon and Tyken's Rift build for the Vesta, so there's a bit of overlap with the Delta's tachyon beams. Do pets benefit from my iskill and gear investment? So like will the Deltas have a better tachyon beam if I've maxed flow caps? (or conversely, will the Yellowstone's tetryon plasma do more damage if I've maxed particle gens?)

Haven't tried delta but Yellowstone are awesome. Yes they spam EwP randomly. Who cares. The advantage comes from TB, chronoton and strong durability. Definitely worth every FC and dilithium I paid. Obviously though, everything depends on build.

cookiecrook

macronius wrote: »

Haven't tried delta but Yellowstone are awesome. Yes they spam EwP randomly. Who cares. The advantage comes from TB, chronoton and strong durability. Definitely worth every FC and dilithium I paid. Obviously though, everything depends on build.

I completely agree and prefer them over the Delta's. They hit harder, last longer, and that Tetryon Warp Plasma spams out more than enough for my liking. Personally, I have found the Yellowstone's to be the best choice for my Vesta.

warmaker001b

If you want your hangar unit to do CC, get the Yellowstones.

But if you want them to do damage, Yellowstones are terrible. Their armament is poor, and their deployed numbers are low. So you end up with very few units that do poor damage.

If you want damage, I'd either go with Elite Peregrines, Elite Scorpions.

I've never had Elite Delta Flyers so I cannot comment on those.

stofsk

Well, my Fed-Rom tac flies a Fleet Arky with Elite Scorps, so I don't feel a compelling need to get those again. Since my sci is starfleet and flies a Vesta, I'd prefer a runabout rather than Peregrines, because that's what the Vesta-class is supposed to have. I was thinking of getting the Armitage, with Peregrines, but honestly I'm kinda happy with the ship line up on all my Fed characters, and since I've already got the Fleet Arky it feels kind of redundant to get another escort-carrier.

I'm a bit bummed about KDF not having a Vesta or Armitage/Arky equivalent though. The Flight Deck cruisers look a bit pants, the Karfi looks like it escaped from the warhammer 40k universe (but otherwise it's decent), and the Vo'Quv just didn't do it for me in terms of gameplay. Kinda wish the Varanus had a hangar.

fraghul2000

I wasn't too impressed with my Delta Flyer hangars. The shield drain from the Tachyon beam was negligble, damage output was lower than that of the basic rare Peregrines (longer relaunch CD as well), while not offering the snare utility that the runabouts do.

Currently the Deltas are sitting in the inventory, only to be mounted whenever I want to run a CE/CEE again...

ursusmorologus

I am pretty sure that the pets inherit the owners flowcaps skill, but I dont know for certain. I am almost positive that the KDF drain pets do it, but am only pretty sure about deltas. I notice the drain, and my engi has flowcaps, so there you go. Pets dont inherit DOFFs or set abilities or anything (I had hoped the yellowstone would inherit DOFF shield drain on tractor beam but nope).

Elite fleet Delta and Yellowstone have 18,608 hull hit-points vs 2,777 for typical elite fleet fighters and 31,013 for elite fleet BOPs, so they are both pretty strong relative. Both of them have phaser beam array as their primary weapon (which is better than cannons due to time on target), so the final difference between them is spike damage from torpedo (transphasic > chroniton), and deshielding ability (tachyon > tractor). IMO, Delta are slightly better for general use in those areas. Yellowstones are not bad but they are mostly for CC.