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Carrier Command - Escort Question

madjakomadjako Member Posts: 12 Arc User
edited April 2013 in The Academy
I really like playing carriers in STO and I've been experimenting with a few different builds on my newly acquired recluse. My newest plan was to add three of the flight deck Doffs that increase fighter DPS by 10% and then spec heavy into survivability and energy leeching (letting my pets supplement my lack of DPS with the Doff). So here?s my dilemma. I'm not sure what the heck my pets are doing when I click on the Escort button. Sometimes they shoot, sometimes they don't, sometimes they turn their engines off and refuse to do anything at all.

Am I missing something here? I've found a few form posts where people have said it depends on the distance from the fighter to the NPC. However, I tried this out and flew right up to an NPC and switched them into escort (while the NPC was firing at me), and the results were still iffy. Is there some sort of inactivity cool down when switching from Attack to Escort? Does the skill only work when you target team mates?

If anyone can school me a bit more on this command I would be grateful.
Post edited by madjako on

Comments

  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    escorts upposed to have them attack whatever is attacking the ship they are set to escort. so if nothings actively attacking you and is reasonably close to them. (like 5km or so) they wont attack. its not like intercept where they will attack any enemy that gets too close to you.
  • madjakomadjako Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    tenkari wrote: »
    escorts upposed to have them attack whatever is attacking the ship they are set to escort. so if nothings actively attacking you and is reasonably close to them. (like 5km or so) they wont attack. its not like intercept where they will attack any enemy that gets too close to you.
    So if you start trading phasers with a target at 6k-9k your fighters wont defend you until you get within about 5k? I guess that makes sense. Any opinion on the fighters taking no action at all some times even at close range (when switching from attack to escort)? Again, the only thing I can think of is a cool-down timer of sorts?
  • tenkaritenkari Member Posts: 2,906 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    sometimes its best to turn off your current carrier command before switching to another. there was a buf a while back in which if you changed commands directly, could get the pets to do nothing. this was usually fixed by turning off carrier commands, turning on recall, turning off again then picking the one you wanted.
  • cmdrskyfallercmdrskyfaller Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    escort command has always been glitched.

    Switch to intercept. The accuracy bonus is much better for pet torpedo damage (its the only damage that counts) since it ups their critical hit rate. You're better off with a 10k torpedo hit going crit for 70k than having same torpedo hit for 13k every time...and your fighters dont fire torpedoes as often anyway.

    If you plan your carrier to be a speed/engine debuffer and up your pet's crit hit rate you will do a lot more damage, more effectively, than simply upping the base damage.

    aka,

    see target. hit its engines or tractor it and dump a grav well on it if you have it. it fires back. your fighters under intercept swarm in and fire torps at it.. while its defense rating is near 0.. your pets have very high acc bonus under triple intercept doff... all pet torps crit for ridiculous amounts.
    [SIGPIC]http://media.tumblr.com/160cacdb395f8340dac90864182ebe16/tumblr_inline_mx9yxhItkb1qg9pkt.jpg[/SIGPIC]
  • banzaizapbanzaizap Member Posts: 49 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    It sounds to me like the OP isn't using Escort quite right. You don't use it when targeting enemies, you use it when targeting Friendlies! So target your friend and hit Escort. Now your fighters follow your friend around and protect them. If you do not have a friendly targeted when you activate Escort, it does seem to confuse your fighters. So use Escort to protect a friend, not attack enemies. I do this frequently, and it seems to work fine for me.

    As an example, in the Azure Nebula Rescue, I have my fighters escort the friend who is engaging the spawns. They all draw off the Tholians while I sneak in to release the Romulans. I just need to spew out more fighters as the first set dies.
  • madjakomadjako Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    edited April 2013
    Thanks for the responses guys!

    --cmdrskyfaller, i'll have to try out the extra acc, that sounds good. I agree btw, the skill seems really bugged. I did a few hours of testing with carriers from fed and klink side (using different fighter mixes), and they were glitched all around. The only time it worked without any issues was during a 1v1 pvp match I setup with a friend to test the skill.

    --banzaizap, as for "using Escort quite right" the description says the target can be a friendly player or yourself, so I would tend to think using it on yourself should be just fine. Again, according to the skill description. I did try to use the Escort skill on my team mates during the testing, but it was still glitchy for me. What kind of carrier and fighters are you using?
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