I honestly didn't expect it to have the directional invulnerable shield mechanic of the NPC version and to be that good and to be able to equip full carrier-only hangar pets since it's supposed to be a dreadnought (so normally only one fighter-only hangar), but is actually a true hybrid dreadnought and carrier with the best of both worlds 4/3 weapon slots and the second hangar and a turn rate that is among the less worse for a carrier or even a dread.
The shield modifier is BoP-levels of subpar, but since it's a carrier (so pets can aggro first) and it has the Automated Defense Screens passive, shields aren't really relevant to it and it has an impressive hull modifier to compensate. So far, it's the only ship I didn't put Reverse Shield Polarity on because it's that good at mitigating and no-selling damage, even in emergencies.
The console is meh and the trait is more of an inconvenience, unless you like to dive into a formation of ships with warp core breaches.
Having MW stations would have made it perfect for me, but since the Command abilities got buffed and it can get the strongest rank III ones (like Emergency Artillery), in addition to GW if you use its Universal Lt Commander station for science for great CC, it's already excellent.
Plus as I love alien designs, it's a welcome bonus.
And it handles most vanity shields relatively well, even if they remove its organic feeling for a fully tech one.
I really appreciate this thread because of all the suggestions for me to check out that I never considered.
Another ship I have been surprised I enjoyed so much is the Cardassian Intel Science Dreadnought. It is 4/3, and has a 2ndary deflector slot, and 5 sci console slots that can be upgrade to 6 with an x-upgrade. It is a dread so it has a pet slot. The only down side is the turn rate but I can deal with that. Over all, it is a great sci ship and fun to play with.
Some ships are very special or exclusive, like the Xindi ones, the 26th century dreadnoughts or the S31 ships. I expected those to be fun. The regular Federation ships mentioned above? They didn't seem special at all, two of those seemed to be as standard for Starfleet as possible.
In recent years though, I stopped preferring all sorts of alien ships like the Xindi or Andorian ones, ones from different times or ships that would otherwise seem a strange ship to appear in for a Starfleet captain. I actually came to dislike those ships. So, I wanted my Federation captains to be more regular (as in, make them such that they could have been a (lesser known) captain from the shows) and I began caring about their background stories. Which meant that ships like those mentioned at the top of my post became more interesting.
It also helped that I began experimenting with different builds around that time, including with all sorts of mixes of (energy) torpedoes. That made the Alita a good choice, and the Steamrunner a week ago. Those ships fit the theme of a torpedo boat well, imo. As for the Odyssey, it was the release of the Verity and me recently trying to use more canon builds with normal phasers to further make my captains more Starfleet-like that made the ship more interesting to me. Typical Starfleet ships just look better when they're firing orange phasers.
That also made the Narendra seem a nice ship to me. I got it through a recent promo and while I didn't think I'd be using it much, I liked the sleeker design better for one of my toons who had been flying a legendary Galaxy until then.
I love the Legendary Galaxy Dreadnaught, it and its traits slots right in with my "TRIBBLE you, I'll outlast you" playstyle, but I've fallen in love with the Kelvin Destroyer, especially its experimental weapon. I slot that thing on all my ships capable of having it.
My heart will always have a special place for the New Orleans class, though. Glass cannon, but charming nonetheless.
EDIT: Really? The word "s crew" is censored? Really?
I really appreciate this thread because of all the suggestions for me to check out that I never considered.
Another ship I have been surprised I enjoyed so much is the Cardassian Intel Science Dreadnought. It is 4/3, and has a 2ndary deflector slot, and 5 sci console slots that can be upgrade to 6 with an x-upgrade. It is a dread so it has a pet slot. The only down side is the turn rate but I can deal with that. Over all, it is a great sci ship and fun to play with.
Strictly in terms of ships that exceeded my expectations..
Durgath Temporal Heavy Dread
I primarily got it for vanity, and the layout really left me scratching my head when I got it; however, with the build I have on it, it never fails to put a smile on my face. It can take a stupid amount of punishment, it slices through things way better than it "should", and it can send swarms of fighters after things all while looking the part of a proper klingon dreadnought. Mine has a couple fun gimmicks on it that synergize suprisingly well with both the build and the look too(subspace jumper for the lance/repositioning and Entangled Quantum Bombardment for Radiation-based AoE - the built-in Lance is also radiation-based, so they're both boosted by the same things).
Suliban Silik
Honestly, I overlooked the ship for a long time because of its fewer tactical consoles and bridge layout. When I finally decided to get one.. wow. A Battlecloaking strike-carrier with 5 forward weapons and a standard(non-romulan) warp core. It also looks great with a dual beam bank overload setup(the beams fire from the forward pylons in a very satisfying way).
Jem Hadar Vanguard Carrier
I liked what I saw from the stats on paper, but I really underestimated just how much of an anomaly powerhouse this ship can be while also sporting a near-escort forward weapon capacity. Additionally, you've got dual hangars and get 3 supplemental attack craft(2 wingmen, 1 separation console) BEFORE adding in pet swarms like photonic fleet, Command spec, and the myriad of traits/consoles/devices that let you summon more. Jem Hadar may still lack a proper science ship(seriously, they STILL don't have a SINGLE Secondary Deflector ship), but the carrier is wonderful for hybrid science builds.
For me...I was hesitant for a while to fly a Vengeance, not the biggest fan of the gap in the saucer ships and wasn't sure exactly how she'd handle...I know she can be a powerhouse but I was never concerned with maximum dps. I eventually got one and I'm happy with it...she can be rather versatile in her builds...a bit more agile than I expected (which is good and bad for me, I'm a gal-x fan and the vengeance being much larger handles better >.>)
Can't have a honest conversation because of a white knight with power
Strictly in terms of ships that exceeded my expectations..
Durgath Temporal Heavy Dread
I primarily got it for vanity, and the layout really left me scratching my head when I got it; however, with the build I have on it, it never fails to put a smile on my face. It can take a stupid amount of punishment, it slices through things way better than it "should", and it can send swarms of fighters after things all while looking the part of a proper klingon dreadnought. Mine has a couple fun gimmicks on it that synergize suprisingly well with both the build and the look too(subspace jumper for the lance/repositioning and Entangled Quantum Bombardment for Radiation-based AoE - the built-in Lance is also radiation-based, so they're both boosted by the same things).
Suliban Silik
Honestly, I overlooked the ship for a long time because of its fewer tactical consoles and bridge layout. When I finally decided to get one.. wow. A Battlecloaking strike-carrier with 5 forward weapons and a standard(non-romulan) warp core. It also looks great with a dual beam bank overload setup(the beams fire from the forward pylons in a very satisfying way).
Jem Hadar Vanguard Carrier
I liked what I saw from the stats on paper, but I really underestimated just how much of an anomaly powerhouse this ship can be while also sporting a near-escort forward weapon capacity. Additionally, you've got dual hangars and get 3 supplemental attack craft(2 wingmen, 1 separation console) BEFORE adding in pet swarms like photonic fleet, Command spec, and the myriad of traits/consoles/devices that let you summon more. Jem Hadar may still lack a proper science ship(seriously, they STILL don't have a SINGLE Secondary Deflector ship), but the carrier is wonderful for hybrid science builds.
That dearth of science ships sort of makes sense lore-wise since the faction is not the whole Dominion, just Odo's expeditionary force, and that was scraped together out of pure warships for a specific, already known target rather than any kind of research or even much in the way of scouting.
The Dominion itself probably has modified bugships built as scouts and most likely larger science spearheads (rather than Federation style pure science ships), but unless the devs have a reason to go back and expand the faction out I doubt anything like that would be seen ingame because it does not fit the Jem'Hadar combat-monster style. It would be nice to have a Dominion styled sci-spearhead with combat wingman though (right now there seems to be only DSC and Cardassian sci-spearheads).
Okay my next zen ship is gonna be that suliban ship, I have overlooked it forever, mainly cause I thought it used a singularity core. I did not know it used a standard warp core. Everything else sounds great to me.
Honestly, I don't even know why I initially picked this ship, it didn't seem to have anything I wanted. It was a beam boat cruiser, it was Command (pre buff) and wasn't really all that great for me. I saw one listed on the exchange for about 70% of it's value and I bought it. Originally, I was going to flip it, but I ended up just keeping it.
I am glad I did.
This thing is great if you want to switch between a DPS oriented ship and tank. I have 2 loadouts saved, and I can go from a great aggro tank, to a very competent DPS Beam ship in the press of a button. The thing is just so versatile, it just seems to do everything well. Sure, it primarily shines as a Tank, being one of the best ships in the game for that function, but I have no issue keeping up my DPS in elites with it either. The Hanger Pets are also a really nice plus as they debuff enemies using ATB.
I slapped the S31 Vanity on it.. and I just love the look and feel of it. A ship I really didn't expect to like that much and just bought on a whim. It's currently my main characters main ship and it's likely going to stay that way. It's a fantastic ship.
Comments
I honestly didn't expect it to have the directional invulnerable shield mechanic of the NPC version and to be that good and to be able to equip full carrier-only hangar pets since it's supposed to be a dreadnought (so normally only one fighter-only hangar), but is actually a true hybrid dreadnought and carrier with the best of both worlds 4/3 weapon slots and the second hangar and a turn rate that is among the less worse for a carrier or even a dread.
The shield modifier is BoP-levels of subpar, but since it's a carrier (so pets can aggro first) and it has the Automated Defense Screens passive, shields aren't really relevant to it and it has an impressive hull modifier to compensate. So far, it's the only ship I didn't put Reverse Shield Polarity on because it's that good at mitigating and no-selling damage, even in emergencies.
The console is meh and the trait is more of an inconvenience, unless you like to dive into a formation of ships with warp core breaches.
Having MW stations would have made it perfect for me, but since the Command abilities got buffed and it can get the strongest rank III ones (like Emergency Artillery), in addition to GW if you use its Universal Lt Commander station for science for great CC, it's already excellent.
Plus as I love alien designs, it's a welcome bonus.
And it handles most vanity shields relatively well, even if they remove its organic feeling for a fully tech one.
Another ship I have been surprised I enjoyed so much is the Cardassian Intel Science Dreadnought. It is 4/3, and has a 2ndary deflector slot, and 5 sci console slots that can be upgrade to 6 with an x-upgrade. It is a dread so it has a pet slot. The only down side is the turn rate but I can deal with that. Over all, it is a great sci ship and fun to play with.
Some ships are very special or exclusive, like the Xindi ones, the 26th century dreadnoughts or the S31 ships. I expected those to be fun. The regular Federation ships mentioned above? They didn't seem special at all, two of those seemed to be as standard for Starfleet as possible.
In recent years though, I stopped preferring all sorts of alien ships like the Xindi or Andorian ones, ones from different times or ships that would otherwise seem a strange ship to appear in for a Starfleet captain. I actually came to dislike those ships. So, I wanted my Federation captains to be more regular (as in, make them such that they could have been a (lesser known) captain from the shows) and I began caring about their background stories. Which meant that ships like those mentioned at the top of my post became more interesting.
It also helped that I began experimenting with different builds around that time, including with all sorts of mixes of (energy) torpedoes. That made the Alita a good choice, and the Steamrunner a week ago. Those ships fit the theme of a torpedo boat well, imo. As for the Odyssey, it was the release of the Verity and me recently trying to use more canon builds with normal phasers to further make my captains more Starfleet-like that made the ship more interesting to me. Typical Starfleet ships just look better when they're firing orange phasers.
That also made the Narendra seem a nice ship to me. I got it through a recent promo and while I didn't think I'd be using it much, I liked the sleeker design better for one of my toons who had been flying a legendary Galaxy until then.
I didn't expect much, since the previous versions I had access to were pretty terrible.
My heart will always have a special place for the New Orleans class, though. Glass cannon, but charming nonetheless.
EDIT: Really? The word "s crew" is censored? Really?
Totally :-)
Durgath Temporal Heavy Dread
I primarily got it for vanity, and the layout really left me scratching my head when I got it; however, with the build I have on it, it never fails to put a smile on my face. It can take a stupid amount of punishment, it slices through things way better than it "should", and it can send swarms of fighters after things all while looking the part of a proper klingon dreadnought. Mine has a couple fun gimmicks on it that synergize suprisingly well with both the build and the look too(subspace jumper for the lance/repositioning and Entangled Quantum Bombardment for Radiation-based AoE - the built-in Lance is also radiation-based, so they're both boosted by the same things).
Suliban Silik
Honestly, I overlooked the ship for a long time because of its fewer tactical consoles and bridge layout. When I finally decided to get one.. wow. A Battlecloaking strike-carrier with 5 forward weapons and a standard(non-romulan) warp core. It also looks great with a dual beam bank overload setup(the beams fire from the forward pylons in a very satisfying way).
Jem Hadar Vanguard Carrier
I liked what I saw from the stats on paper, but I really underestimated just how much of an anomaly powerhouse this ship can be while also sporting a near-escort forward weapon capacity. Additionally, you've got dual hangars and get 3 supplemental attack craft(2 wingmen, 1 separation console) BEFORE adding in pet swarms like photonic fleet, Command spec, and the myriad of traits/consoles/devices that let you summon more. Jem Hadar may still lack a proper science ship(seriously, they STILL don't have a SINGLE Secondary Deflector ship), but the carrier is wonderful for hybrid science builds.
Honorable mentions:
Breen Warship(s)
Ferengi Nandi
Tactical Command Battlecruisers
Ha'apex/Haakona
Qib Intel Battlecruiser
That dearth of science ships sort of makes sense lore-wise since the faction is not the whole Dominion, just Odo's expeditionary force, and that was scraped together out of pure warships for a specific, already known target rather than any kind of research or even much in the way of scouting.
The Dominion itself probably has modified bugships built as scouts and most likely larger science spearheads (rather than Federation style pure science ships), but unless the devs have a reason to go back and expand the faction out I doubt anything like that would be seen ingame because it does not fit the Jem'Hadar combat-monster style. It would be nice to have a Dominion styled sci-spearhead with combat wingman though (right now there seems to be only DSC and Cardassian sci-spearheads).
Honestly, I don't even know why I initially picked this ship, it didn't seem to have anything I wanted. It was a beam boat cruiser, it was Command (pre buff) and wasn't really all that great for me. I saw one listed on the exchange for about 70% of it's value and I bought it. Originally, I was going to flip it, but I ended up just keeping it.
I am glad I did.
This thing is great if you want to switch between a DPS oriented ship and tank. I have 2 loadouts saved, and I can go from a great aggro tank, to a very competent DPS Beam ship in the press of a button. The thing is just so versatile, it just seems to do everything well. Sure, it primarily shines as a Tank, being one of the best ships in the game for that function, but I have no issue keeping up my DPS in elites with it either. The Hanger Pets are also a really nice plus as they debuff enemies using ATB.
I slapped the S31 Vanity on it.. and I just love the look and feel of it. A ship I really didn't expect to like that much and just bought on a whim. It's currently my main characters main ship and it's likely going to stay that way. It's a fantastic ship.