I was looking through all the areas of both Command Officer and Intell Officer in the specializations.
The Command one tends to rely too much on the whole team having this ability, or a certain area of this ability. Forward march being one such area.
The Intell one seems more focussed on your own toon, and as an opinion to me seems alot better, more powerful and effective both for space and ground.
Surgical Strikes and Override Subsystem Safeties go against many of the "rules" that Cryptic established as their own baselines for damage and balance.
Ionic Turbulence, less so in its post-nerf state, also provides a massive buff to everyone's damage without any of the hangups that are innate to Command.
Overall, Command needs a buff (and flatout re-write of some abilities, like Reroute Power from Life Support).
The trait for Command looks better than Intel's trait. Getting rid of that less than 50% hull requirement for Fleet Support to work will help a lot of people.
There's a difference between the command/intel boff abilities and the captain command/intel specialization abilities. I think the OP is talking more about spec tree captain points, and its true that it relies a lot on being in a team, but not necessarily others also having the command spec.
Command spec for space relies a lot on torpedoes, so if your build is like that then go ahead. I have that one one character, but I really yet to see a large noticeable difference for torpedoes, but I'm sure if we all did they would reduce its power. And other powers also rely on being in a team, so it depends if you to STFs or solo missions more.
The intel tree instead give you, for example flanking bonuses, so non-raider ships can flank and raiders get better flanking. It also increases crit d/h when flanking, both of which can really boost DPS. Command spec cannot really do that, and this is good for both team (in that it kills enemies faster, not aiding your teammates) and solo. The same goes for defense, reflecting flanking damage, etc. So for torpedo-less builds that are maneuverable enough to flank enemies, Intel is great.
The same generally goes for ground as the intel spec abilities are as identical as possible for ground and space.
For boff powers Intel wins hands down, but of course you can primarliy spec in intel and use command boff abilites and vice versa, and there does not seem to be immense synergy between captain specs and boffs (other than training, but of course you can buy the manuals, etc, on the exchange easily).
All my ground teams have at least one intel and one command-specialized boff, just brings some variety, but unfortunatley space isn't that flexible.
Intel is better. It has very strong debuffs, disables, subsystem power supplementing (OSS, and it can supplement your EPTx abilities), and bonafide strong offensive power, stealth options. Very well rounded. Command has good heals but the rest is so "meh."
In terms of Specialization Tree Bonus/Traits:
Intel is well rounded in making your ship survive better and hit harder.
Command has some cool looking bonuses but when you pay attention to the words, unlike Intel, its too dependent on too many external factors and for RNG to help you out. There's also the horrible, very long lockout timers. The last trait is stupidly located at the end where something like that was really needed in an earlier tier.
More importantly, Intel does not leave itself at the mercy of RNG like Command does. Intel does not have these terrible lockouts on the scale that Command does.
TLDR: Intel is better in every possible way. The only saving grace Command has is Rally Point.
My main is command all the way and she's amazing, so I don't see why the hate for command.
methinks people don't get how to use it properly.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."
Comments
Surgical Strikes and Override Subsystem Safeties go against many of the "rules" that Cryptic established as their own baselines for damage and balance.
Ionic Turbulence, less so in its post-nerf state, also provides a massive buff to everyone's damage without any of the hangups that are innate to Command.
Overall, Command needs a buff (and flatout re-write of some abilities, like Reroute Power from Life Support).
Command spec for space relies a lot on torpedoes, so if your build is like that then go ahead. I have that one one character, but I really yet to see a large noticeable difference for torpedoes, but I'm sure if we all did they would reduce its power. And other powers also rely on being in a team, so it depends if you to STFs or solo missions more.
The intel tree instead give you, for example flanking bonuses, so non-raider ships can flank and raiders get better flanking. It also increases crit d/h when flanking, both of which can really boost DPS. Command spec cannot really do that, and this is good for both team (in that it kills enemies faster, not aiding your teammates) and solo. The same goes for defense, reflecting flanking damage, etc. So for torpedo-less builds that are maneuverable enough to flank enemies, Intel is great.
The same generally goes for ground as the intel spec abilities are as identical as possible for ground and space.
For boff powers Intel wins hands down, but of course you can primarliy spec in intel and use command boff abilites and vice versa, and there does not seem to be immense synergy between captain specs and boffs (other than training, but of course you can buy the manuals, etc, on the exchange easily).
All my ground teams have at least one intel and one command-specialized boff, just brings some variety, but unfortunatley space isn't that flexible.
Intel is better. It has very strong debuffs, disables, subsystem power supplementing (OSS, and it can supplement your EPTx abilities), and bonafide strong offensive power, stealth options. Very well rounded. Command has good heals but the rest is so "meh."
In terms of Specialization Tree Bonus/Traits:
Intel is well rounded in making your ship survive better and hit harder.
Command has some cool looking bonuses but when you pay attention to the words, unlike Intel, its too dependent on too many external factors and for RNG to help you out. There's also the horrible, very long lockout timers. The last trait is stupidly located at the end where something like that was really needed in an earlier tier.
More importantly, Intel does not leave itself at the mercy of RNG like Command does. Intel does not have these terrible lockouts on the scale that Command does.
TLDR: Intel is better in every possible way. The only saving grace Command has is Rally Point.
My character Tsin'xing
methinks people don't get how to use it properly.
"He shall be my finest warrior, this generic man who was forced upon me.
Like a badass I shall make him look, and in the furnace of war I shall forge him.
he shall be of iron will and steely sinew.
In great armour I shall clad him and with the mightiest weapons he shall be armed.
He will be untouched by plague or disease; no sickness shall blight him.
He shall have such tactics, strategies and machines that no foe will best him in battle.
He is my answer to cryptic logic, he is the Defender of my Romulan Crew.
He is Tovan Khev... and he shall know no fear."