Pilot Escorts

hyprodimus

For those of you who have the pilot escorts, what do you think of the ship traits?
How much does the Structural Integrity Overcharge heal for?
Is Warp Sheath noticeable?
Is Stay On Target damage any good?

warmaker001b

I was one of those that bought the Pilot Ship 9-Mega Factions Pack. These Escorts are the Best Escorts In The Entire Game. Their traits however? 2 are "meh" and one is "It depends."

The trait from the ENG one is quite "Meh" because there are already other means on hull regeneration.

The trait from the TAC one is very "Meh" to me because it's not that powerful and it's 4 second reload isn't any special to me, even as a "free" torp launch. Not worth a Starship Trait Slot.

The trait from the SCI one? That's the "It depends" one. Subwarp Sheath's penetration bonus is not based on Throttle Setting. It's based on your actual speed until a cap of 10% or so is reached. Depending on how your flying, even if fast, it can fluctuate as you bleed off speed in turns and recover speed as you leave these turns. If you are not flying fast, Subwarp Sheath is useless to you. If you DO have a fast flying build (and not necessarily must be an Escort, mind you) and combat routine, then Subwarp Sheath may be for you. It also meshes quite beautifully with Pilot's "Pedal To The Metal/Improved Pedal To The Metal" trait if your build and combat style caters to that.

hyprodimus

Thanks for the review! I think I might go for the tactical version then and not worry about consoles and traits. How much extra hull regen do you get on the eng version?

warmaker001b

hyprodimus wrote: »

Thanks for the review! I think I might go for the tactical version then and not worry about consoles and traits. How much extra hull regen do you get on the eng version?

Not enough for me to sacrifice a Starship Trait slot for it. I fly my Pilot Ships fast. I rarely get hit so my repair abilities tend to be unused so they are always sitting around ready, in case someone actually got lucky and hit me good. I'd rather not equip that ENG trait and put in something useful. Reciprocity, AHOD, the Prometheus' trait, Veteran DD trait, etc. There are, at least to me, more useful Starship Traits than the ENG Pilot Ship's.

I've drifted away from Hull Regen oriented repairs because they are never enough should something(s) get some solid hits on you.

IMO of course.

hyprodimus

I see, it doesnt seem so useful anymore. Mercury it is!

postinggum

Pedal 2 + subwarp sheath, on paper can push a beam array hit close to that of a DBB, for example my eng in an Eclipse cruiser gets 13% penetration with full throttle and A2D without tweaking for extra engine power, add extra power and that'll creep up a little, the game now has many ways for getting a bit more power.

So for pilot ships the issue is how to go faster becoming squishier or losing damage in a mistaken trade-off. Going ET, EPW2, EPW1, A2D with a purple A2D doff, gives a better peak damage than dropping A2D and having 2 copies of EPTW2. For sure try to get that 5th rep trait slot from the research lab and add the +25% speed and turn rate power.

lordsteve1

I've always found that anything that boosts regen (shields or hull) or gives extra regen abilities are really not worth it.

If you get properly hit by the enemy or another player no amount of regen will help you out as the damage will nearly always outweigh the amount regen'd.
And if you never get shot then the boost/power is wasted on you.
On the other hand a decent heal like engineering team or hazard emitters is far, far more useful for saving your TRIBBLE in a fight.

It's why I never bother with regenerative shields, the extra regen speed really adds up to nothing when the next shot on you wipes all that regen out instantly anyway.

seaofsorrows

I agree that Subwarp Sheath is the only trait that's really worth anything, but as said above, it's conditional. My main runs Dual Beam Banks in front and Omni's in the rear, it wasn't quite as useful for him since he sometimes 'parks' to hold the DBB's on target.

I threw my Engineer in one though and she's running single beams all around, so she doesn't have to worry about firing arc. The trait is much better for her, but I have only really found it to be useful in Single Beam builds. If you're running Cannons or DBB in the front, you'll probably find better traits. The other two traits aren't very useful at all IMO.

thibash

Stay On Target is a bit of a weird ability. On its own, it's not very special. However, it is affected by most torpedo traits (as well as kemocite last time I checked) and it flies a lot faster than regular torpedos. If you have a torpedo boat setup, where the first projectile triggers something, then it may be worth using.

sovereign010

I held off for ages in committing to the Pilot escorts, waiting for a sale to get the bundle, and I'm really glad I did. Traits are pretty meh, and the consoles are a similar story. At least one toon from each race that I have still fly them and they were well worth the outlay.

The console set bonus comes into its own when you're packing cannons. I have a Kdf tac officer running the 3-piece bonus (for +33% cannon dmg), combined with Plasmonic Leech, the beam and warp core from the Ancient Obelisk set... and a full load of Antiproton DHCs. You can imagine the result

mustrumridcully0

thibash wrote: »

Stay On Target is a bit of a weird ability. On its own, it's not very special. However, it is affected by most torpedo traits (as well as kemocite last time I checked) and it flies a lot faster than regular torpedos. If you have a torpedo boat setup, where the first projectile triggers something, then it may be worth using.

My biggest problem with it was that it started firing the moment I had something targeted that was in range - before all my buffs were running and stuff like that. Can be a bit annoying.

But despite somewhat similar in mechanic (periodic damage to a nearby target), it blows the Commando Starship Trait completely out of the water. (Is there a trait that's worse?)