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Odyssey Variants: How good are they really?
organicmanfred
Member Posts: 3,236 Arc User
Hello and good evening,
I 've got another brilliant stupid question for all the Odyssey owners out there.
Do you really think, also with the Vesta variants coming soon, that the Odyssey is worth buying?
I mean right after becoming Vice-Admiral, I unpacked the Odyssey Requesition Pack some players received a long time ago and I wasn't very satisfied with this variant.
Most terrible thing that bugs me is the turn rate.
Maybe I could live with that and equip the Odyssey class with beams instead of cannons but anyway: Is it worth buying?
Thanks a lot for upcoming suggestions!!
I 've got another brilliant stupid question for all the Odyssey owners out there.
Do you really think, also with the Vesta variants coming soon, that the Odyssey is worth buying?
I mean right after becoming Vice-Admiral, I unpacked the Odyssey Requesition Pack some players received a long time ago and I wasn't very satisfied with this variant.
Most terrible thing that bugs me is the turn rate.
Maybe I could live with that and equip the Odyssey class with beams instead of cannons but anyway: Is it worth buying?
Thanks a lot for upcoming suggestions!!
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
IMO, the Odyssey is a very solid ship.
The Odyssey Star Cruiser (the anniversary edition) is essentially a bulkier, tankier Star Cruiser. You are not going to be impressed with it because it's a lobotomized version of the science Odyssey variant.
The "real thing" is, IMO, much better. Personally I favor the tactical version; although the science ship has Sensor Analysis, it takes forever for it to match/exceed the extra punch of the third tactical slot.
However, the biggest problem is determining WHICH ONE TO GET, obviously. You need to look at the hulls and the goodies to determine what you want. IMO, the Operations Odyssey has the best console and the worst hull. The console is sufficiently good that if I had to pick one, I'd probably pick this one, but it's worth knowing what you're getting into hull-wise. The tactical Odyssey is probably the most solid for doing DPS, but the console should be named 'The Barge of the Dead,' in my experience, due to its propensity to be torn to bits. The Science Odyssey's hull is an interesting one, due to Sensor Analysis, but has certain limitations (most notably the way Sensor Analysis "commits" you to a specific opponent, which is especially troublesome if you want to help out a teammate). The Work Bees aren't magic, but they ARE helpful - it's a little like Nanite Health Monitor except for space. That said, they have no offensive application whatsoever, so while it's good for helping you tank and protecting allies, it's useless for DPS, except in the sense that it keeps ships intact to do more damage.
If the turn rate bothers you then you're going to want to get the Operations Odyssey at the very least, due to the saucer sep, which is also, IMO, the best console. Don't make the mistake so many people do and assume the saucer is worth anything - it's very poor in terms of pet value. The real benefit is getting rid of the saucer. It won't turn your ship into an escort, but it's more agile than the Excelsior, at least with all three consoles equipped.
IMO the best thing to do is pick up all three in the pack; ultimately, that gives you maximum versatility.
However, you're going to have to realize something - while there are band-aids for the Ody's agility, there is no true cure. Even saucer separation won't truly fix this due to the relatively lengthy cooldown, even when you factor in the Odyssey set's reduction to that cooldown. At some point you're going to have to face the fundamental nature of the Odyssey : a big, bloated space whale. While you can do things to help with this, if you can't deal with this then it is not the ship for you. Also note that the inertia rating is of concern as well - that's why it's harder to control than the Galaxy class. That said, there have been people able to do surprising things with it - I have seen some surprisingly effective cannon-centric setups.
Personally, although I'm currently on the Regent right now, I would suggest the tactical variation with all three consoles, the engineering slots with neutronium, the science slots with field generators, and the tactical slots with energy type boosters. I put two of the console set in the engineering slots and one in a science slot. As the Borg console bonus is going away it gives more room for adding another armor/shield console if it's ditched, while keeping the MACO shields and Borg engines/deflector. It's worked well for me. You might well prefer the Omega set for agility boosts.
As a note, it would be helpful if you told what your captain's career is, and aren't afraid of the One True Build (TM) fans telling you you are an idiot for even entertaining the thought of not using a particular ship type... unless it's an engineer in which case many would tell you you are an idiot for considering any other ship.
Yes the ody is worth owning but if you don't like the base one there's no reason to expect you to like the others any more.
As for the Ody versus the Vesta its all pretty conditional. They seem pretty balanced to me given the differences between the two ships but will shine in totally different scenarios.
For PVE play the Vesta will far out perform the Ody because cruisers don't have much of a place in PVE play and a good Sci ship is always fun. In PVP play the Ody will probably still be the stronger of the two. The dedicated Cmdr Sci slot seems weaker than an Ody's dedicated Cmdr Engineering slot in PVP play and the Vesta will be more vulnerable to PVP style spike damage.
All my observations are based on the below.
Base Stats (for all Multi-Mission Science Vessels):
Rank Required: Vice Admiral
Hull Strength: 27,800
Shield Modifier: 1.35
Crew: 750
Weapons: 3 Fore, 3 Aft
Device Slots: 3
Bridge Officer Stations: 1 Lieutenant Tactical, 1 Lieutenant Engineering, 1 Commander Science, 1 Ensign Universal, 1 Lieutenant Commander Universal
Base Turn Rate: 13 degrees per second
Impulse Modifier: 0.16
Sensor Analysis
Subsystem Targeting
Can Equip Cannons
Aux Phaser Dual Heavy Cannons Mk XII [Acc] [Dmg]x2
1 Hangar Bay ? with 1 wing of Danube Runabouts
For pure single target it matches damage per shot after 18 second, and total damage after 36, after that it's supiriour. I don't call that "a long time".
A lot of this is going to depend on how those Aux Cannons work, if they run entierly off aux power it wll be able to do the top end sci stuff and still pack escort levels of DPS with a standard sci vessal tank. Thats uniquelly powerful no matter how you cut it.
As usual, Razellis with his input of knowledge and logic. Very good Synopsis IMO.
Now as for my opinion. I asked this very same question a while back, and got answers similar to this. But it begs the question. What do you want from your ship? You cannot really compare the vesta to the oddy. Well you can, but it won't be accurate, since the Vesta is a science ship, whereas the Oddy is a cruiser. So I shall go into what each ship does in my eyes.
The Odyssey is basically a space whale. There is no getting around that. It turns like the Titanic, and takes as long to get going as Bowser does in Mario Kart. But, unlike the Titanic and Bowser, the thing is virtually indestructible if you build it right. There are 3 classes as you are aware, and each has it's own strengths and weaknesses.
The Tactical Oddy is exactly that. It's the damage dealing Odyssey. It comes with a backup ship that likes to die stupidly pointless deaths, but out of the 3, it's got the best damage console setup, 3/4/3. Also it comes with a bonus 10 weapon power which makes it great for combat. Add on the +5 to shields and aux and that's a good ship overall.
The Operations Oddy comes with the best console (chevron sep), but probably the worst console layout. I cannot really fathom any reason as to why you would ever need a 2/5/3 setup, but that's just me. Also, it's only 2 tactical consoles make it a little weak firepower wise. However it is the most balanced as power setup goes. +5 to every subsystem, just like most cruisers.
The Science Oddy is probably one of the most stupidly powerful tanks there is. It has one of the less useful consoles, but I suppose the repairs are nice. As consoles go though, it's almost the perfect tank. 2/4/4 leaves room for neutronium and lots of field generators (which currently stack with no diminishing returns). Combine that with the BOff setup that the Odyssey has, and you can have a practically invincible tank. Also the +10 power to shields and aux make it great for healing and shield maintenance.
I personally run a Tactical Odyssey with the Chevron Separation Console. That makes a naaasty ship. So for tanking requirements, the Odyssey is by far the best.
However for almost anything else, the Vesta is better. She handles better, she can probably DPS slightly better if not outright better, and she has better CC and console abilities. But her hp is much lower (27.8k as opposed to the Odyssey's 42k) so she can be nuked down pretty hard by things like transphasics and tricobalts. However that is the only weakness I can see on that ship currently.
So if you want a tank that can do decent damage, go with the Odyssey. If you want a CC and damage dealer that is basically very powerful, go with the Vesta.
As for which ones to get? That again is playstyle based, but if money is no object, get the 3 packs and mix and match. However if your funding is limited, and you want an oddy, I would go with the Operations variant simply because it has the saucer sep and the engi consoles so it has the best hull survivability and is the most likely to be able to get around and do things. As for the Vesta, if you can't get the 3 pack, I would actually go with the Standard Vesta, the Sci variant. It seems to have the most balance of the 3, so naturally I would pick that.
thank you very much for your help guys.
I am a SCI Vice-Admiral. (I should have chosen TAC..)
Well I think I will wait till Christmas with my decision, maybe PWE has some christmas sale on ships again.
Recently I bought the Armitage, next will be the Regent, I have the Mobius and the Temporal Warfare Set and I am unlocking boxes till I die for the Wells. Maybe I will buy the Tier 5 Defiant and the Blockade Escort later on.
I almost had every Fed ship and I have to say that I loved the Escorts and the Bellerophon most of them.
The Odyssey Pack looks good, and then all the unique consoles into the TAC Variant should do the trick.
I will read your answers a few times through again, but anyway I want to tell you how good it feels to be treated so kind.
Although beeing a Vice-Admiral, I have done some wrong turns in the game and made decisions I maybe shouldn't have done. But I love it to come here, ask something no matter how stupid, and get perfectly and friendly replys.
Thank you again.
Sorry if my grammar isn't good, english isn't my native language.
1) NEVER regret rolling what you rolled. TRIBBLE that "roll a tac or uninstall" bs. Any career choice works fine in this game.
2) NEVER run the full Oddy set. It's not worth it. It just isn't worth it.
3) You know all those keys you are using to unlock boxes? Why not just sell them on the exchange and buy the Wells with the ECs you make? Just a thought. At roughly 1.3 mil a pop, you should be able to sell 58 keys on the exchange and have enough for a wells. Better than opening 58 boxes IMO.
1) Very true, I fear a sci officer in PVP more than a tac and an engineer is actually a decent healer thanks to it's incredible damage resistance. A well timed Sub-Nuke has killed me more often than AP: alpha.
2)This is sadly true, the console abilities aren't powerful enough(I blame the recharge timers and lack of pet controls) to balance out the lost attribute bonuses. PVE is something of an exception to this rule but that's only because PVE doesn't take much.
P.S. The help is no problem. Just remember to take anything said on this forum with a grain of salt.
USS WARRIOR NCC 1720 Commanding Officer
Star Trek Gamers
The tactical and ops "pets" are totally lame ducks. No reason to ever use those consoles. Same could be said of the "worker bees" on the sci, but basically that means look at the console layout and never use the special consoles.
Of the lot, that means the best overall cruiser tank was the Sci oddy. Those sci consoles allow universal consoles or field generators (4 of them!) to give you a boost.
Looking at it strictly from a cruiser standpoint, power and tank capabilities. Power to subsystems in eng consoles, or armor or flow cap, whatever floats your boat, and shield modifiers in the sci slots.
No cruiser is going to win a DPS contest on consoles alone. So those tac consoles don't break the deal for me.
Overall, is it worth it? No. If you bought it without knowing better will you be able to use it well? Yes. Are those boffs truly universal? No, not really.
I tried using it as a sci setup. I put that LtCDR as a sci slot and one of my characters was levelling up entirely on sci ships. It was a nightmare. Totally incapable of using the sci skills after the initial head-on alpha strike. Further, it cut significantly into your self-healing skills with only 3 eng skills. My dps dropped horrifically. Doing basic storyline missions was taking ages. Fights were prolonged and painful. So I switched it to an eng cruiser setup (LtCDR eng, ENS tac). It was night and day, what I could do. Just forgetting trying to aim at a target and focusing to EPTW and EPTS chains using both BO and FAW allowed me to dispatch targets far faster than my "sci" attempt.
Never run the oddy as a sci. It's an absolute joke.
As far as running that LtCDR as a TAC? I think you'll find there's only so much you can do. IMO torp skills are rather wasted due to the slug-like turn rate (4x RCS don't even help), so torps are also wasted. That means you're stuck with beams for max coverage as targets fly around you. That means FAW, BO, and TT1, in most cases. If you run that LtCDR as a TAC you can add APB or something else, but really it's a minor addition, and you're sacrificing the biggest benefit this cruiser has: The Eng CMDR/LtCDR combination. Chaining EPTSx2 and EPTWx2 keeps you in the fight and keeps you fighting back harder and longer.
IMO adding more TAC slots doesn't make the ship more "assault" or anything. It's like adding that extra sci ENS on some escorts doesn't make them any more "sci".
The oddy is a cruiser. It is best as an ENG cruiser. That is really the only light it should be seen in. With that in mind, it's not THAT much better than the free Assault Cruiser. More hull, yes. Another console, yes. But it's a minor upgrade for such a heavy price ($20.00).
Buyer beware.
I think I will really wait for a christmas sale on ships before I buy the Ody Variants.
You know, in other games I am usually a wizard or monk or something. Not the fighter. So I choose my SCI profession. But I have to say that I don't feel comfortable with my profession. I can't explain it but I just don't like to depend on Gravitons or any other forces and rays and phenomens from space.
Thanks for the tip with the Key selling for the Wells ship. I am on it, but at the moment I need the Lobi Crystals for the Temporal Warfare Set and the Photonic Science officer.
Thank you all again!!
If you want to try out the other two I'd recommend tactical(the golden child that is favored above all others by the games mechanics) then engineer(PVE easy mode and the least potent but still underrated class).
I'd need to see your build to offer real advice but try to get and use TBR(tractor beam repulsors) and GW3(gravity well 3) as your primary damage powers on a sci ship, I find those give me my "space sorcerer" fix (even if I have to adjust my aux power like I'm shifting gears).
Sci's support style buffs are nice for carriers and teams but don't do much for single ship PVE. so lining up your captain powers together on the bottom line of the power tray and hitting your team buffs after summoning "fleet support" and/or "photonic fleet" will make your flimsy pets a touch more useful. This is especially true for carriers.
Sci ships suffer from the largest Doff dependency of any profession and have to be fine tuned for each and every build. Generic Doff arrangements just don't seem to work well as a single gravity well Doff or T.T. Doff can make a world of difference. Using damage control engineers to "cruiser up" with near permanent EPtS2 and EPtW1 seems to work wonders on my carriers after the flight deck officer nerf.
The big thing with sci's and tac's is getting the most out of their captain abilities, they have the best powers and can make a big difference in how a ship will handle. Engineer's powers are far less impressive unless you're tanking a massive spawn or being an immortal escort/carrier just to TRIBBLE with people.
P.S. STF borg and PC's are VERY resistant to sci powers and are practically immune to them some of the time. Try a mirror event to see what Sci used to be like.
Vestas have a lot of toys.
A player really should just buy both packs.
Captain Ruri Gokou of the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk
Catian Atrox Carrier
P.S. My comments about the oddy were not narrow minded. They were the subject of a year's extensive use and testing, retesting, readjusting, my builds many times over.
For a sci, the oddy is absolutely worthless. For a TAC you gain very little and sacrifice far too much to get it. The only effective solution is running it as an ENG cruiser. I say ENG as in boff slots, not captain class. My tac and my eng characters both use it in similar fashions with good results, but that's with the LtCDR slot as an eng.
I don't own jack squat in stock for PWE, and I still say the Oddy is the best spent zen I have ever done in this game. I have all 3, and I use the tac oddy with great effect in both PvE and PvP. I don't know what your problem is, but dismissing a ship outright is not only rude, but downright biased. Just because your experience with the ship was garbage, don't assume someone else won't have fun with it. Hell I got into my oddy, and now it takes a full team of my IRL friends yelling at me to get me out. And they don't do it. Because they know my oddy does it's job. And does it well. And that's with my LtCmdr as a tac.
I say buy both packs and experiment with them. Find which one YOU like, and TRIBBLE what everyone else says. If I listened to what everyone else said, I would never have gotten the Odyssey 3 pack and would be flying my FPE all the time. As is, I got it, and now I enjoy all 3 ships.
Captain Ruri Gokou of the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk
Catian Atrox Carrier
You can have all 3 equipped to, say, a Tactical version and have access to all 3 console abilities.
I only have it on Tribble, but if it's the same version as on the live servers, the Aquarius escort and Chevron separation console abilities are either/or: You either get an Aquarius Escort to help you out and can't use Chevron separation until you call the Aquarius back, or you separate the saucer but can't launch the Escort until you call the saucer section back.
It's all about DPS recently, assuming you're not playing PvP. People may argue that cruisers can in fact deal decent dmg, but beams and torps are never going to do the same thing several dual cannons and turrets with CRF/CSV can. In addition, cruisers are barely able to turn and as such the only role they're good for is tanking and team support.
The Odyssey variants are the most versatile cruisers in the game - I'll give them that. 10 console slots in different configurations as well as universal boff stations make them one of the best big guys FEDs have.
But you need to ask yourself if you want to fly a support cruiser in the first place. If yes - then by all means get Odyssey. If not, then wait for Vesta or some PROPER Federation Battlecruiser (i.e. one that's actually able to turn and has lt.cmdr. tac station - not like that garbage called dreadnought).
As for the variants, not much to say - pick tactical if you want to get the most of your energy weapons. Engi variant is only good if you're gonna really make use of the 5 engineering slots (i.e. tanking and defense). For every other purpose take the science variant, as it gets free sensor analysis that doesn't do that much, but is always a nice addition.
As for unique consoles, the only one I found useful was Chevron Separation, as it drastically increases your turn rate. The Aquarius escort is honestly useless, and worker bees heal way too slow.
If anything I can at least say that I'll be switching from Odyssey to Vesta on both my Sci and Engi toons the moment they appear in the C-Store. And I don't think I'll ever go back to flying this or any other standard cruiser in the game. I'm waiting for the Andorian Battlecruiser, hoping it's going to turn out similar to KDFs Fleet Vor'Cha, which is my new love on my KDF Engi toon.
The science odyssey gets +10 power to shields and auxiliary. These are where your tanking comes from. It also gets a free hull heal from the Work Bees. Not a particularly strong heal, but it doesn't share a cooldown with anything else and at 45 seconds this is one of the few universal consoles that you can actually work into your general build.
It is, quite simply, the finest tanking cruiser in the Federation.
You underestimate what sensor analysis does; every tick of Analysis that you collect, that is 3% more damage with your weapons. That's 3% actual damage, i.e. it's applied after everything else. If your target stays alive long enough to collect the full stack of 10, your 8-gun cruiser will be fighting like it's a 10+ gun cruiser.
Now, granted, with the science odyssey you have to make difficult choices: if you stay fixated on one target your firepower will become quite significant, but then you can't share your heals with your team. You have to be able to triage the situation and know when it's worth trying to save somebody and when the best course is to stay on target and keep that firepower.
OK, so you can have the aquarius deployed and have the worker bees out or the chevron separated with worker bees out but not both.
I have been thinking about upgrading from my assault cruiser once I hit VA for my engineer. I have the MVAE for my other tac character so I wanted to try something different. I was looking at the odyssey, the escort carrier, atrox carrier, or the new vesta. I dont PVP and have not done STF in a long time.
As for enemies other than STF gates and cubes - any non-cruiser cannon ship will blow them away faster before sensor analysis would raise to even remotely useful level on a beam boat ody.
Numbers are numbers, but I can say from experience, flying sci ody since its release, that in the end the dmg performance on this ship is nothing when compared to basically anything that can equip dual cannons.
Now we're getting vesta, which will have 3-4 tactical console slots, dual cannons and sensor analysis. I see no reason to go back to slow Ody now, honestly.
So I stand by what I said - if your not PvP-ing then there are way better ships to choose from than the Ody.
And stay away from the Atrox - complete waste of money. Get yourself a Recluse if you really want a FED cow... carrier.
I 've read through all your comments and watched some YouTube videos to see the Ody in action.
Well I have to say that I will wait for a sale on ships before I spend money, IF I ever spend money, on the Ody.
By the way, I know it does not belong to this thread, but what about the Patrol Escort?
I mean I don't see a lot of ships flying around, nor I hear people talk about that.
It seems to be a fast nasyt ship. Reminds me of the Defiant.
So what's it's problem?
I still love my Engineer but the last few seasons up to the current state of STO has left me feeling a bit outdated and overall, useless as a Tac and Sci can tank and heal just as well with similar ship and build but they also bring other things to the table.
The Engineer doesn't really have any innate abilities that supports the team, besides Engineering Fleet. Nadeon Inversion doesn't counter the abundance of power drain, buff stripping and interrupts rampant in the game. There was time when MW could be used on Friendly Players and it provided a near 100% Hull Heal. Then it got changed to self-heal only that replenished about 40/40% Hull and Shields, Except shield stripping is so damn easy now, I'd rather stack resists and be able to put out a full Hull heal then delay my death by 2 seconds.
If we're talking about the freebie patrol escort, then there is nothing wrong with that ship. But most escort pilots fly c-store escorts, mostly tac escort retrofits since those ships are very powerful. Lots of forward firepower. But the freebie patrol escort is exactly that. A 9 console freebie ship. Still quite good, but not the best there is.
If we're talkin about the Fleet Patrol Escort, then I can say it's almost the perfect full cannon/turret ship. Best possible BOff setup for exactly that, and has great hull and shields. Also good turn rate, and has 10 consoles, with the perfect setup for combat/tanking. The only real weakness is it's science is a little lacking, but that's easily made up for by turning it's uni ensign, yes UNI into a sci, which gives you 3 science powers.
Tbh, the FPE has no real weaknesses outside the fact that it's an escort, so it's hull is not as good as a cruiser, and it's shields are weaker than a sci. But with it's damage output, that really is a null point.
I hear you. I rolled an engi because I wanted to be that same unkillable tank I always am when I play League of Legends. Then suddenly I find out that I need to spec in threat control to get NPCs to shoot at me. Ok, kinda annoying, but doable. Then I have the horror of discovering I can't force players to fire on me. Also annoying.
Then I find out that guess what, Damage is all that's needed, and tanks aren't. And then I suddenly find that my class is almost useless. Ain't life wonderful?
However I then discovered ground combat. And all of a sudden my Engi isn't nearly so useless. And then I discovered the Odyssey, and my engi is even less useless. My oddy can heal up a storm, and still do acceptable damage. Not great, but at least I get above 3500 DPS. Don't believe me? Ask Flekh, he parsed it for me. And that was being semi casual. If I really wanted to, I could pull over 4k DPS. I learned what to use, how to use it, and am now effective on my Engi Oddy.
As for my Tac Tor'Kaht? I think I just explained it with the last 3 words in that sentence. XP
Oh, yeah. Ground Combat for Engineers is another story. Too bad Ground Combat still blows, imo.
Which Oddy do you use on your Engineer? The Operations or the Science?
Ground combat blows indeed. That's why you do fabrication specialist and let all your little spawns (especially those quantum mortar IIIs with a purple explosives expert proc) do the work for you.
As for which Oddy I use? I use all 3 but for STFs I tend to run in the Tac Oddy with the chevron sep console. Combine that with the 3 tactical console slots and 4 engi console slots, it can do some serious damage output while still having great survivability.
If you want my build, I can post it up.