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Andorian Ships, still viable ?
arionisa
Member Posts: 1,421 Arc User
I created a female Andorian captain for AoY, andd I am working on having an all female Andorian away team. The backstory being that my Captain is the oldest of 5 sisters and had the "pull" to get her younger sisters assigned to her command after they graduated from Starfleet Academy.
To help fill out that story, I am considering buying the Andorian ship pack, so I will have an Andorian ship with Andorian Captain and crew.....with a few token "others" manning bridge stations for the space traits.
I am not committed to this idea enough to drop that amount of Zen on the ships if the ships are too sub-par to be using as my main ships though, so I am seeking opinions from those who have the Andorian ships as to their viability for "end-game" use. After flying around in all three to see which one I prefer I would of course upgrade that one to T5U.
To help fill out that story, I am considering buying the Andorian ship pack, so I will have an Andorian ship with Andorian Captain and crew.....with a few token "others" manning bridge stations for the space traits.
I am not committed to this idea enough to drop that amount of Zen on the ships if the ships are too sub-par to be using as my main ships though, so I am seeking opinions from those who have the Andorian ships as to their viability for "end-game" use. After flying around in all three to see which one I prefer I would of course upgrade that one to T5U.
LTS and loving it.
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The tac one is an over the top glass cannon with way too many tac boff slots to utilize properly and barely any options for survivability. Basically you'll end up killing almost half your tac powers with shared cooldowns and barely got any room for shield heals, hull heals, (weapon)power buffs,etc.
The "sci" variant is just one big fail. 4 sci console slots but horribly gimped at sci stuff because it dosen't have access to sci powers beyond lt. which makes it pretty much ppintless.
The only decent one is the engineering at T5U but it's outclassed by pretty much every escort released after it, especially the pilot bunch which also has the 5/2 layout and unlike them can pull off those tac/engi/sci focus properly.
Seems the verdict is 100% against spending Zen on the Andorian ships. Next time I'll make it easy on myself and just make a human toon, so I can have a human crew and human ship.
I couldn't care less about being top DPS/Tank etc, as long as I can fly it in missions, and not be a liability during STFs, I can have fun. The answers now have swung over to say that they will suffice in that respect. Already got the Zen (zen sale, why not). Now I just have to try and have the patience for the next ship sale lol
The ship itself is your typical escort. I think it's identical with the T5 Defiant - the wing cannons and quad cannons are pretty much identical, the clicky consoles are limited to the ships themselves. They deal a lot of damage, but then again which ship doesn't? If you look for a "performer" you shouldn't invest your Zen here. If you create a theme and want to have fun though it's perfectly viable to do so. It's a T5 escort en par with fleet ships, it will be sufficient for all content in the game.
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While I don't think I'd recommend the Andorian escorts over the Pilot escorts, or really any T6 escort, you can certainly make them 'viable', pending you bolt enough stuff on and take a very active play style to keep your ship in one piece.
Not my video, BTW.
Just yesterday I realized I should have also asked this question on my Fleets website. Although I have no mike, I was listening in on TS yesterday during the weekly build discussions and it turns out that one of my fleet mates not only has the Andorian ships, but flies them exclusively, with 30K being on the extreme low end of his usual DPS.
Can't wait for the next ship sale now......
If you're looking for a more traditional perspective, the engi variant is the best. On any of the variants, wether engi or science, you will have the same boff layout. Low sci (just one Lieutenant Boff) and Lieutenant + Ensign on engi. The rest being obviously tactical stuff.
The tactical one is a complete mess. The only reason to buy it would be the skin exclusively. Doesn't pay up.
Regardless of your choice, Charal or Khyzon, these escorts (as all escorts and bops) are paper. Low shield-modifier, fragile-no-native resists-hull, very high damage output and very good maneuvrability. Intel+Pilot are the best specs, obviously, due to defense and defensive bonuses besides flanking from Intel.
If you really wanna buy a ship with 5-3 layout and disregard the canon, fed-side, I recommend the Arbiter (t6, trait is one of the best energy weapons traits in the game, 5-3 layout, not so paperish). And then with just another fleet console, you'll run the fleet version t6 which is the best fed ship for dps (except for lockboxes maybe).
I run an Charal myself, but it's paper and I know it. It's on one of my tacs and I don't venture into too extreme challenges with it. Low fps+paper ship=0 dps (dead).
They do look amazing, but you need to even out both dps and survivability. And yes, to a certain extend, they're outmatched by newer escorts in stats, but not in looks.
Protonic Kool-Aid Down The Drain Cruiser
Immortal BOff Skills combo for Ground
Not worried about being max DPS, super tank or anything like that, just wanna have fun playing the game and not be a liability to the rest of the team when running STFs.
if you like the ships, they are no liability...there are better ships statwise, but it is absolutely legitimate to fly those ships. Your overall setup is more important than the few stat shortcomings.
Having said that, your money would have been better spent on the pilot ship pack, but then again, the andorian ships have a unique style.
Agreed- the Pilot Escorts outstrip the Andorian ones in terms of stats, they're by no reason a bad choice. The best one to upgrade to T5-U is the Charal so that it gains the extra 5th tac slot but has a better, more balanced BOFF setup. Also, with the DMG modifier getting reworked it makes the wing cannons relevant again, so if you happen to have a phaser setup you're not losing out.
Now for some follow up. In keeping with the RP aspect of this toon, I plan on running full phasers ...... and I'm seriously considering trying a cannon boat, which I have never done before. Besdies the wing cannons the ship comes with, I also have the phaser quad cannons from some other ship that I can't remember the name of right now. I will likely run the KCB in the rear along with an Omni-phaser, or maybe a turret as I understand turrets also benefit from cannon skills.
So, I'm looking for advice on ship set-up now. I can't (and wouldn't anyway) spend a ton of Zen opening boxes to get Lobi for Lobi gear, and I am not a "whale", I had to scrimp and save to get enough to even buy the ships so I can't buy a bunch of C-store stuff to gear this ship. Don't have a huge amount of EC to spend either but I can get EC a lot faster than Zen or lobi. (Depending on price I plan on grabbing a leech today.)
What mission/rep equipment would be best to use.....and if cannons/beams makes a difference, please advise for both. Also, for a cannon set up, what BoFF skills should I run ? Again, I have never run cannons before, and when I got a ship with cannons, I immediately replaced it with beams so I could keep my CDs as low as possible by doubling up on beam skills.
This toon just hit level 50 a few days ago so I will manage mission reward gear long before I'll manage rep gear so if rep gear is best, advice on what mission gear to use till I can get the rep gear would be greatly appreciated.
I realize that I am asking a lot, but I have seen from reading these forums that there lots of very helpful players out there so I am hoping for the best.
I can give you some basic hints at least.
First and foremost, this is more of a reply to a previous post, any ship is "viable". Literally anything. You cannot be "bad" or a "liability" simply because of the ship you choose. That's nonsense made up from people just repeating what they think they read and hear.
Regarding cannon escorts, you might consider the quantum weapon set (cannons, console and torpedo) from the recent mission arc. The cannons are phasers and blue, so they fit perfectly with your andorian blue phasers and the set gives phaser damage boni. The 8472 rep also has some phaser damage boni when using the torp and console. Regarding skills, as with anything else, you probably should exclusively use AoE abilities, which menas cannon scatter volley all the way - single target abilities are, from a efficiency standpoint, not useful in STO. Torpedo spread and cannon scatter volley, maybe a attack pattern is your default tactical setup for an escort like this when you use cannons. Be sure to max out your long range targeting sensors in your sci skill tree to reduce damage drop off to beam level. The other BOFF skills depend on which variant of the escort you use, but they should have the basic survival skills - the profession's team, hazard emitters, emergency power and whatever you feel like using.
As a cannon escort you probably want more engine power and are more mobile than what you are used to since you only use your narrow forward arc, so get a hang on what speed works for you during combat to keep the enemy in front of you and still have enough defense left. Cannon scatter volley has the unique perk that it eliminates "projectile travel time", which means your weapon damage is applied instantaneously to all targets in your forward cone which helps a lot, but you still need to get a hang on that if you exclusively used BFAW boats before.
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