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Can someone recommend a good Cruiser for a Tactical Captain?
reezark
Member Posts: 6 Arc User
Hello,
I'm pretty new to the game, only just started playing a couple of weeks ago. Anywho, I leveled my Tactical Captain to 50 and and have used escorts the entire time. I'm currently doing STFs in an Advanced Escort pretty much decked out to be a gun-boat (3 MKXII Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons and 1 MKII Proton Torpedo in the front, 3 MKXII Phaser Turrets in the Aft).
My skillset is pretty cookie cutter for the role... I copied a recommended skillset for what is "best" for a Tactical Captain that I read about on some other thread.
But lately I've been wanting to fly a good Cruiser without having to change my skillset... basically I want to own a good Cruiser and a good Escort and be able to switch between them depending on my mood and what my Fleet needs at the time (is even such a thing possible in this game)?
Thanks in advance!
I'm pretty new to the game, only just started playing a couple of weeks ago. Anywho, I leveled my Tactical Captain to 50 and and have used escorts the entire time. I'm currently doing STFs in an Advanced Escort pretty much decked out to be a gun-boat (3 MKXII Dual Heavy Phaser Cannons and 1 MKII Proton Torpedo in the front, 3 MKXII Phaser Turrets in the Aft).
My skillset is pretty cookie cutter for the role... I copied a recommended skillset for what is "best" for a Tactical Captain that I read about on some other thread.
But lately I've been wanting to fly a good Cruiser without having to change my skillset... basically I want to own a good Cruiser and a good Escort and be able to switch between them depending on my mood and what my Fleet needs at the time (is even such a thing possible in this game)?
Thanks in advance!
Post edited by reezark on
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Comments
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Yep, that's the ugly truth. Tactical captains will never be anywhere near as effective in a cruiser vs being in an escort. The closest you might get is the Galaxy-X, but any way you chew it up cruisers won't work well with tacs. But if you're really wanting a cruiser, Galaxy-X dreadnought, Odyssey tactical, or excelsior.
EDIT: even though my flagship (in my signature) is a cruiser, I run the tactical escort retrofit (the cloaking Defiant).
Excelsior
http://www.stowiki.org/Excelsior_class#Excelsior_class
or
Tac Odyssey
(consider buying all three, or buy the operational Odyssey because you can remove the saucer and have a better turn rate)
http://www.stowiki.org/Odyssey_Tactical_Cruiser
if you don't want to spend money:
http://www.stowiki.org/Assault_Cruiser
If i where you i would take a closer look at the Regent Class, the Galor or the D'Kora.
Of course you won't kill an enemy as fast as if you where in a escort (the developers L-O-V-E- escorts, but don't tell anyone. lol.), but if you are into Cruisers (like me) you will like it.
Live long and prosper.
For Zen the Regent or the Excelsior are great.
For Insane EC there is the Galor.
ADDENDUM: Remember that active duty doffs are very important if you are going to try this. The Conn Officer that reduces Tactical Team cool down is very useful, as is the Technician who reduces all cool downs when Aux to Batt is used. Tactical Initiative is also very powerful on these ships.
I think for now it depend on whether I like the Assault Cruiser or the Mirror Star Cruiser as far as trying out Cruiser go... I may consider an Excelsior or an Odyssey later if I like the style of gameplay.
They are random prizes from the Tholian Lock Boxes, but the package can be sold on the Exchange.
STO Forum member since before February 2010.
STO Academy's excellent skill planner here: Link
I actually avoid success entirely. It doesn't get me what I want, and the consequences for failure are slim. -- markhawman
If I'm not totally off my rocker, that's the one that looks like the regular Star Cruiser, but has the Assault Cruiser-like stats, yes?
Just by checking the wiki it seems like the Mirror Assault Cruiser will be the way to go for a "trial Cruiser.". If what I'm reading is correct, the Mirror Assault Cruiser performs exactly like the normal Assault Cruiser but has 200 more crew, while the Mirror Star Cruiser performs exactly like a normal Star Cruiser but has 200 less crew.
Odd but ok.
Or is there something I didn't notice about the Mirror Star Cruiser that makes it a better choice over the Mirror Assault Cruiser?
Also you have the enjoyment of slagging top of the line warships with a 230 year old cruiser.
What you want is the Mirror Assault Cruiser.
The Mirror Assault Cruiser LOOKS like the regular Star Cruiser, but has a crew compliment of 1000 (which is a slight upgrade).
The Mirror Star Cruiser LOOKS like the regular Assault Cruiser, but has a crew of 800 (slight downgrade, and it's not what you're looking for as a tactical captain).
http://www.stowiki.org/Mirror_Universe_Assault_Cruiser
The Assault Cruiser is a good "do everything" cruiser - it can introduce you to just about anything a cruiser can do. It's not "great" at anything but "good" at everything. There is a reason it's the most popular ship in general at end game, so far as I've seen. It's also probably the best tank short of going for a full-up tank support ship (Galaxy Retrofit, Star Cruiser, Odyssey Operations Cruiser), because the two Lt. Cmdr slots let you rotate Emergency Power to Shields 3 consistently.
The Regent is a good alternative to the Assault Cruiser. It is not an upgrade per se, more like a side-grade - it leans more tactically than the AC, exchanging some durability for some firepower. In my opinion it's a good trade-off and it slightly resembles the Odyssey class without the saucer section in terms of performance, albeit it's slower and has less shielding (though it does have more hull HP, if I recall correctly). The quantum torpedo it comes with is great, but I have had little luck with the Metreon Gas, and have dumped it in my bank in hopes of finding a better use for it some day. It also has the option of becoming even more firepower-oriented if you use the universal slot for a tactical BOff, though this comes at a hefty price in having no science abilities available at all; that said I think most captains assign a science officer to the universal slot.
The Excelsior is a ship that's good for agility. It's arguably very slightly more durable/support-y than the Regent, and has a bit more firepower than the Assault Cruiser (due to having a Lt. Cmdr tac slot), so it sits between them. However, it is noteworthy that the ensign engineering slot is of somewhat limited use, which limits how much more durable it actually is than the Regent. It also comes with transwarp drive, which is a neat bonus, although this has nothing to do with your ability to fight whatsoever. It is the most agile of the Federation end-game cruisers.
The Odyssey variants, though slow, do have the universal Ensign and Lt. Cmdr. If you're dying to get pure tactical capabilities, that's the most you can get on a Federation cruiser - 6 if you max it out, although on mine I use the Lt. Cmdr as tac and the Ensign as eng to give a continuous rotation of EPtW1. However, if you use the tactical version, don't expect the Aquarius to help you much.
The Operations Odyssey and its saucer separation IMO are the most valuable. The raw increase to maneuverability plus the increase to firepower and speed are very valuable and makes it actually a faster ship than just about any other cruiser Fed-side. Do note, however, that it is NOT an escort. Even in saucer sep mode, it is a cruiser - a good, fast cruiser, but a cruiser nonetheless.
The Science Odyssey also offers Sensor Analysis to boost damage over time, though it takes a steady lock of about a minute for its advantages to combine with the SA boost to overtake the presence of a third tactical console slot on the Tactical Odyssey. According to data I've gathered there isn't a huge difference in total DPS over a few different missions I ran, but personally I'm inclined to think that sensor analysis just plain isn't quite what it's cracked up to be, although it's definitely a decent power, especially for non-tac captains.
The Odyssey is a good bet overall, but you need to know at least two things before you use it:
1. It is the most bloated, slow cruiser Fed-side and probably at least the second slowest ship Fed-side. While you can use saucer separation to get away from this, saucer sep has some important limits, particularly the long cooldown (partially mitigated by the Ody set if you have it), and the fact that the itself saucer is neither smart nor particularly powerful. That said, the stardrive section is a dangerous and maneuverable ship with or without the saucer.
2. The Ody really shines when you get the Odyssey pack and equip the consoles on one of them - although the set bonuses, while full of goodies and some stat boosts, end up eating several console slots, somewhat limiting your options there. However, it is indisputably highly versatile.
The Galaxy-X Dreadnaught is a controversial ship if there ever was one. In terms of general handling characteristics and BOff assignments, it handles like a Galaxy, but has the BOff assignments of an Assault Cruiser. As such it's a bit slower and more bloated. It also has slightly more hull HP (something like 2%). The Gal-X's abilities are rather unique, though - it can cloak (only Defiant derivatives can cloak other than this ship, in the Fed fleet). The Lance is, if used correctly, devastating (and underwhelming if not), but has a long cooldown. It can also equip cannons, but these are of somewhat limited use, especially when considering both the limited tac slots (Assault Cruiser layout, remember) combined with the slow turn rate, meaning that the whole dual cannon/dual heavy cannon feature is rarely used in practice. It also has an important limitation - unless you want to gimp either your regular firepower or your lance you MUST use phasers, otherwise you can't take advantage of the boost of phaser relays. This is not negotiable; it's part of the ship design. In general, as I understand it, the Gal-X is considered a specialist ship, and although I don't have one, I have to agree; generally it seems that the best commanders are experienced, and may even spec the entire character just for this ship. Not sure I'd recommend this for a beginner.
So, you have eight choices, in effect.
* Assault Cruiser (standard)
* Mirror Assault Cruiser
* Assault Cruiser Refit (Regent)
* Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit (Excelsior, AKA Excelsior-R)
* Odyssey Tactical
* Odyssey Ops
* Odyssey Science
* Odyssey Three-Pack
* Galaxy-X Dreadnaught
You can also pick up lockbox ships if you're keen on dumping tons of EC at the problem and don't mind using an out-of-theme ship, but I'm not going to get into those.
If it were me, I would start by picking up the Assault Cruiser or Mirror Assault Cruiser. Then if I liked what I got, I'd get either the Regent, Excelsior-R, or the Odyssey three-pack.
If my crew is 50 out of 50 (100% crew members alive), my repair rate is the same as a crew of 1000 out of 1000 (100% crew members alive).
IF YOU MUST USE A CRUISER, read the above wall of text very well, since I say it's a great source of info (I am an engi who flies cruisers, and I agree with pretty much everything listed above, and that which I don't agree with is opinion only, not facts). All his facts and tips are pretty much good ones, even though I would recommend against using a dread. But that's personal opinion.
but for a few 100 k you can test it and see if you like it.
Yea I mean the Mirror Assault Cruiser. Those ships are hard to keep straight at times.
* Assault Cruiser Refit (Regent)
* Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit (Excelsior, AKA Excelsior-R)
* Odyssey Tactical
* Odyssey Science
* Galaxy-X Dreadnought
Odyssey ships are my pick lately because with chevron separation and its innate shield modifier it can do everything the excelsior or regent can do with more shields and more console slots. Galaxy-x is mostly added for the rare player who can actually make the magic happen.
In the PvP section check out the ultimate cruiser thread 3.0, and the Hilbert guide.
I gotta say I had a blast playing it! My DPS wasn't all that much less than what it is on my Escort, but once I got into a good position to give the enemy a good broadside and pop all of my damage buffing abilities the numbers really got way up there
Off the top of my head I was using the following skills for damage:
Tactical Team 1
Beam Overload 2
Beam Fire At Will 1
Emergency Power to Weapons 1
Directed Energy Modulation 2
Boarding Party 1
Plus all of my own Captain skills.
All of the defensive skills I used in my Escort I used here and I was able to go toe to toe with Elite Tactical Cubes without being smashed to bits. I did 6 STFs last night in total and only died twice... and it was because I wasn't paying attention.
After a while I wound up spending some spare ETC on 4 MKXI Phaser Beam Arrays and my DPS went up even more... at one point I saw some crits do almost 30K damage... Maybe it because I'm new, but I've never seen 5 digit numbers pop off an enemy ship before so I was all like WTF AWESOME when it happened lol.
Ideally like I said before my goal is to maintain a great Escort and Cruiser setup and switch between the 2 ships as needed so my skills reflect that, but all in all I think I'm really enjoying the Cruiser style of gameplay. That Odessey 3 Pack is starting to look mighty tempting lol.
Thanks for that! I think I'm going to have to check that out when things get slow around here at the office... I haven't tried PvP yet but it looks fun so I think I'll give that thread a good read before I jump in on the PvP action
Better turnrate than the Odyssey, more tactical stations than the Excelsior and with the possibility of a upgraded fleet version in the future.
Daizen - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
Selia - Lvl 60 Tactical - Eclipse
A note - you should probably have no more than 7 beam arrays; 6 is generally considered optimal. Even if you have high weapon power, the power drain can get to be counterproductive in extended volleys. I don't have the math on this, admittedly, but it seems to make sense. Also the EPS consoles do NOT help with this particular issue (though I do know they help with a few specific issues, I don't know enough about those to comment, I'm talking general beam array spam without any special abilities).
Some say that engineers CAN make this viable, but I am very highly skeptical on that point, because Nadion Inversion and EPS Transfer both have somewhat lengthy cooldowns, although admittedly it'd work for bursts.
We can, but it's not easy, and requires you to basically keep EPtW cycling almost constantly between two sets of EPtW3 and an EPtW2. And by constantly, I mean the second the cooldown ends, you pop the next one, so it takes away from our attention to other things. It basically sacrifices any heals/reinforcement of shields you would otherwise be able to do. So it can work, and our volleys will do over 1k per beam shot, but we sacrifice a lot of survivability to do it, and even though EPtW2 and EPtW3 keep our total weapons power at around 150-160, firing all 8 beam arrays drops our power down to 80 or 90 depending on how you have skills set up, so by the end of the salvo, our power is usually no higher than 95 if you end on an EPtW3, and no higher than 90 on an EPtW2.
So yes, it's VIABLE, but not PRACTICAL. I would rather take the 6/2 config of 6 beam arrays and 2 torps and just have the usual EPtX cycling. That's personal preference though. It should also be noted that our ships have lots of extra power anyways courtesy of the bonus from every ship listed above, so that helps a little.
if your dps wasn't all that much lower than in your escort, you were doing something wrong with your escort. just saying.
But stick with the cruiser if it suits your play style better.
Escorts can tank actually all elite stfs. with the right setup.
Does taking dmg kill/injure a number of crew per hit or a percentage.
Cause if it is a number than a cruiser with 1000 crew can maintain the higher percentage repair rates.
If a hit injures 10 crew on an eacort with 50 they are at 80% but a cruiser with 1000 they are 99 with 10 injured.
But am i wrong and each hit hurts a standard percent?
USS WARRIOR NCC 1720 Commanding Officer
Star Trek Gamers
vorcha R, fleet vorcha, fleet ktinga
Every cruiser pilot who enjoys broadsiding gameplay NEEDS to buy the regent for that torp alone.
Also the fact that the fleet version will undoubtably make an appearance, if its like it was on tribble 4 Tac consoles will be huge.
But, that 180 torp alone boosts broadside damage bigtime.
Running any more then 6 Arrays is a bad Idea IMO. I've done it, with both a Tac and an Engie. 6 is the sweet spot. Add in the regents 180 torp, and you got 7 Weapons firing broadside.
I still got one toon in a tac oddy, but added that Torp to that as well. IMO it's a must have.
If you insist on running more then 6 arrays, then do 7 and that Torp. lol
Other then that I'd agree with the previous list of ships. I'd also add in the FLeet Heavy Cruiser Retro, Same as the Assault Cruiser layout. But better turn rate. So it deserves a spot.