These days the choice of end game ship comes down to two... Fleet or lock box/lobi.
If you are going it get a fleet ship it's well worth getting the c-store version first...
1 - Jem'hadar attack ship @ 200-300 million EC its not cheap but there is a reason its considered the best escort in game, if you have the EC get it.
2 - Fleet patrol escort @ 20k FM and 4 modules (500 zen/5 million EC each) unlocked at T1 star base and considered the poor mans Jem'hadar.
3 - Fleet tactical escort retrofit @ 20k FM and 4/1 module depending on if you have the c-store version or not and its unlocked at T3. It has the most tac boff slots out of all the escort but its also squishiest. The problem I've always come across with this ship is the 3rd tac ensign, it's waisted on an all cannon build. The cloak can be great for an alpha strike.
4 - Fleet advanced escort @ 20k FM and 4/1 module depending on if you have the c-store version or not and its unlocked at T4. The multi vector is a nice gimmick but I feel that's all it is, the Lt. Com sci makes for some interesting builds but I'd rather have the second Lt. Com tac and again it has the same problem as the FTER with 3 tac ensigns.
5 - Fleet heavy escort carrier @ 20k FM and 4/1 module depending on if you have the c-store version or not and its unlocked at T5 (might be a long way off for some people) it has a hanger bay which is nice and the most hull, with the Lt. Com eng makes it a very tanky escort, but I'd rather have the second Lt. Com tac and again it has 3 tac ensigns... Oh it has that torp console.
6 - Mobius temporal destroyer @ 800 lobi/50-60 million EC so it's also not too cheap but it has the best shield modifier and it's boff set up allows for some unique builds, it's special console is awful though.
7 - Blockade runner escort retrofit @ steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/9908/ the main reason I like this ship so much is the fact that it has fleet stats and its an account wide unlock with a cool special console. It's very tanky without losing any of its firepower.
At this point it more or less depends on your chosen style of play. Statistically speaking the Blockade Runner Retrofit (i.e. Steamrunner) outclasses practically everything on your list, including the Fleet variants. It is a Fleet/Lockbox ship in all but acquisition method (i.e. Steam). The only thing that beats it is arguably the Jem'Hadar bug, but that's not on your list.
HOWEVER, the Steamrunner doesn't have 5 tactical console slots, like the Fleet Defiant does. That ship has greater potential damage, but is less survivable, a true "glass cannon". If you choose the Defiant-R (i.e. Tac Escort Retrofit), you also gain a non-battle cloak and the ability to use quad cannons (though those aren't ideal in the most optimized builds) and your pretty Sao Paolo skin. On sheer value-for-money, the Defiant-R wins out. And with a Tier 3 shipyard it's already available to you once you scrounge up the Fleet Modules. Sadly you can't avail of the discount. Only owners of the Defiant Retrofit from the C-store (and not the Veteran VA ship bonus token) qualify.
HOWEVER again, the Armitage (and its Fleet version) has two things neither the Steamrunner nor the Defiant-R have: A hangar, and a lieutenant commander Engineer slot. It'll do slightly less damage overall due to a lack of a Lt. Commander Tactical post, but has access to higher-level engineering powers, and is very survivable. The Fleet Armitage can give even the Bug and Steamrunner, which have higher base shield and hull, a run for their money because of this slot, as well as its ability to deploy fighters, shuttles, repair drones and runabouts to augment its damage, powers or survivability. Lastly, the Fleet Armitage is available with just a Tier 1 shipyard, so if you own it you can already access it.
So, the big question here is how you want to play. If you just want purely higher stats, the Steamrunner is yours. If you want to hit hard, health be damned, pick up the Retrofit, and later the Fleet version. And if you want to survive a lot of what the enemy can throw at you, plus have a few little friends to help, the Armitage is what you want.
You forgot the torpedo point defence.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]Age StarTrek-Gamers Administrator
USS WARRIOR NCC 1720 Commanding Officer Star Trek Gamers
Again thank you so much for all the great advice guys. Now I am more confused than ever as to what ship to invest in. But looking at all the advice I received from everyone I think I will wait till I have the 20K fleet credits I need to purchase the Fleet Patrol Escort for the time being. After when the time comes to upgrade again I will look at something else. I'm still relatively new in this game and I'm still learning. And thanks to the wonderful spirit shown by all the senior players it makes it a lot easier for newbies like me to really grasp the complex matrix of this game. Cheers!
13th Autonomous Battle Group
USS Crimson Sunrise / USS Midian Breach
Well the bad thing about post like this is that it is a person personal preference. And all our preferences will differ greatly. Some people will talk from experience, others will talk from their own purchases and need to validate it.
But I am speaking from a purely PVP build wise stand point (Which translate to godly in pve) when I say this.
No ship can justifiably out do the PE overlay, you would be hard pressed to out do it.
I agree with your choice but that does not mean I think others are wrong, they may have found a method that works for them and I have not as of yet to investigate them, so from the stand point of purely making a ships build you will be hard pressed to find an better outlay. It has the perfect merging of science and engineering to keep her alive in battle. IT is so good that I one hundred percent believe that if they were to introduce this system into a cruiser, such as the unwieldy oddy I would fly it/ With it's speed issues and turn issues I would still fly that girl, aim high and hit hard. With Cannons or beams you just can't out do this outlay it's just perfect, or at least in my hands it is. I have created, tested, critiqued many many many builds for this game and no mater what I just can't see a better console system in this game. It is so perfect I have no choice but to call it the invincible god system. The perfection of it all is just overwhelming. Massive DPS heady hull healing ability and shield restores that are not only timely and effective but always on hand to boost even your partner and yourself. This ships consoles is so perfect I just can't see it falling. If the Bug did not have this system I just don't see it as prolific as it is nowadays. I wish I could but I just don't...
This system i have constantly starred down the tac cube in a measly little patrol escort and it takes 2-3 shots of her uber torp to kill me, that alone had me sold. I just can't understand why peple are one shotted by this thing then it occurred to me their ships heals and sheilds are skew. tested them all and all were one shotted. The Patrol Escort, The Fleet Patrol Escort, The Chimera, the Bug all have this god system and you just can't beat it with a stick..... maybe I'm wrong maybe it comes down to doffs or skill since it's not items I only have blue XI everything except weapons and sets Remind me i need to get the borg XII set.... but that's for another thread and time.
Lol wait a minute, factor that into the equation as well. I use the Borg set not even the best currently on my patrol escort. the XI version we got when you had to actually run STF's a million times to get so it's not only a weaker sheild set but not even the strongest of the weakest shield sets and i still have to be 2-3 shot by the tac cube. There is jus something to this ship something to this overlay that's just... wow.
Again thank you so much for all the great advice guys. Now I am more confused than ever as to what ship to invest in. But looking at all the advice I received from everyone I think I will wait till I have the 20K fleet credits I need to purchase the Fleet Patrol Escort for the time being. After when the time comes to upgrade again I will look at something else. I'm still relatively new in this game and I'm still learning. And thanks to the wonderful spirit shown by all the senior players it makes it a lot easier for newbies like me to really grasp the complex matrix of this game. Cheers!
I fly a fleet defiant and I can make it survive. But then the toon that flies that ship is an engi. As a tac, you should be flying a bug . Fleet patrol escort is good too. GL!
On paper, it may seem that way. But the little escort can take nearly as good of a beating as the Patrol Escort. Sure, it has weaker hull, but if you think about it, these days, a few thousand extra hull is nothing when under fire by multiple ships.
Between the shield mod and the 4k hull, that's a significant chunk of survivability lost for a very slight turn rating increase. Sorry, I can tell you got a woody for the ship, but its not right to recommend it over a fleet patrol
Free Patrol Escort (RA ship) is pretty good. Yeah, it is not "teh so uber, whatever, 5 console ship", but it is pretty good. It still outclasses everything the red side has (poor Klinks) outside of cross-faction C-Store/Lockbox ships. It's worse then some Fleet escorts (I would say - worse then Fleet Patrol Escort) but frankly, in my opinion it's not that much worse to justify the expense of Fleet version.
Just get the free shippy if you still have the token for it and you will be fine. The difference between Fleet and regular version is like belowe 10% of shield power, 3000 hull (one salvo from DHC, so not that much) and universal ensign that you would most likely still use as eng one. And that one engineering console.
In my opinion getting Fleet Patrol it is waste of money and time if you can have just as good ship for free. Those few perks may mean something if you are really high on the food chain of PvPers when every little advantage is difference between kill or die. But unless you are there - it's just fancy look and the pride of having Fleet ship.
BTw - Defiant-R is pretty tanky in it's own way. It's tankiness goes from it's damage. It kill you, before you can kill it
Comments
If you are going it get a fleet ship it's well worth getting the c-store version first...
1 - Jem'hadar attack ship @ 200-300 million EC its not cheap but there is a reason its considered the best escort in game, if you have the EC get it.
2 - Fleet patrol escort @ 20k FM and 4 modules (500 zen/5 million EC each) unlocked at T1 star base and considered the poor mans Jem'hadar.
3 - Fleet tactical escort retrofit @ 20k FM and 4/1 module depending on if you have the c-store version or not and its unlocked at T3. It has the most tac boff slots out of all the escort but its also squishiest. The problem I've always come across with this ship is the 3rd tac ensign, it's waisted on an all cannon build. The cloak can be great for an alpha strike.
4 - Fleet advanced escort @ 20k FM and 4/1 module depending on if you have the c-store version or not and its unlocked at T4. The multi vector is a nice gimmick but I feel that's all it is, the Lt. Com sci makes for some interesting builds but I'd rather have the second Lt. Com tac and again it has the same problem as the FTER with 3 tac ensigns.
5 - Fleet heavy escort carrier @ 20k FM and 4/1 module depending on if you have the c-store version or not and its unlocked at T5 (might be a long way off for some people) it has a hanger bay which is nice and the most hull, with the Lt. Com eng makes it a very tanky escort, but I'd rather have the second Lt. Com tac and again it has 3 tac ensigns... Oh it has that torp console.
6 - Mobius temporal destroyer @ 800 lobi/50-60 million EC so it's also not too cheap but it has the best shield modifier and it's boff set up allows for some unique builds, it's special console is awful though.
7 - Blockade runner escort retrofit @ steam http://store.steampowered.com/app/9908/ the main reason I like this ship so much is the fact that it has fleet stats and its an account wide unlock with a cool special console. It's very tanky without losing any of its firepower.
Cheers
≡/\≡
USS WARRIOR NCC 1720 Commanding Officer
Star Trek Gamers
USS Crimson Sunrise / USS Midian Breach
But I am speaking from a purely PVP build wise stand point (Which translate to godly in pve) when I say this.
No ship can justifiably out do the PE overlay, you would be hard pressed to out do it.
I agree with your choice but that does not mean I think others are wrong, they may have found a method that works for them and I have not as of yet to investigate them, so from the stand point of purely making a ships build you will be hard pressed to find an better outlay. It has the perfect merging of science and engineering to keep her alive in battle. IT is so good that I one hundred percent believe that if they were to introduce this system into a cruiser, such as the unwieldy oddy I would fly it/ With it's speed issues and turn issues I would still fly that girl, aim high and hit hard. With Cannons or beams you just can't out do this outlay it's just perfect, or at least in my hands it is. I have created, tested, critiqued many many many builds for this game and no mater what I just can't see a better console system in this game. It is so perfect I have no choice but to call it the invincible god system. The perfection of it all is just overwhelming. Massive DPS heady hull healing ability and shield restores that are not only timely and effective but always on hand to boost even your partner and yourself. This ships consoles is so perfect I just can't see it falling. If the Bug did not have this system I just don't see it as prolific as it is nowadays. I wish I could but I just don't...
This system i have constantly starred down the tac cube in a measly little patrol escort and it takes 2-3 shots of her uber torp to kill me, that alone had me sold. I just can't understand why peple are one shotted by this thing then it occurred to me their ships heals and sheilds are skew. tested them all and all were one shotted. The Patrol Escort, The Fleet Patrol Escort, The Chimera, the Bug all have this god system and you just can't beat it with a stick..... maybe I'm wrong maybe it comes down to doffs or skill since it's not items I only have blue XI everything except weapons and sets Remind me i need to get the borg XII set.... but that's for another thread and time.
Lol wait a minute, factor that into the equation as well. I use the Borg set not even the best currently on my patrol escort. the XI version we got when you had to actually run STF's a million times to get so it's not only a weaker sheild set but not even the strongest of the weakest shield sets and i still have to be 2-3 shot by the tac cube. There is jus something to this ship something to this overlay that's just... wow.
yeah, if you bought it in steam christmas sale and the other promotion sale for 10 euros...otherwise it is the same 20 euros as the fleet ships.
you will not be disapointed by your choice.
Elite Defense Stovokor
Between the shield mod and the 4k hull, that's a significant chunk of survivability lost for a very slight turn rating increase. Sorry, I can tell you got a woody for the ship, but its not right to recommend it over a fleet patrol
Just get the free shippy if you still have the token for it and you will be fine. The difference between Fleet and regular version is like belowe 10% of shield power, 3000 hull (one salvo from DHC, so not that much) and universal ensign that you would most likely still use as eng one. And that one engineering console.
In my opinion getting Fleet Patrol it is waste of money and time if you can have just as good ship for free. Those few perks may mean something if you are really high on the food chain of PvPers when every little advantage is difference between kill or die. But unless you are there - it's just fancy look and the pride of having Fleet ship.
BTw - Defiant-R is pretty tanky in it's own way. It's tankiness goes from it's damage. It kill you, before you can kill it