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I suck at playing Escort
domvina
Member Posts: 0 Arc User
Whew. Feels good to get that off my chest.
I do PvE exclusively but I'm terrible at keeping my ship inside the Escort firing arc. I spend more than half any battle broadside or backside to the enemy. If it weren't for my aft turret and mines I'd never kill anything.
I've tried Cruisers and while the firepower is nice they maneuver like pigs.
I resisted Science for a long time. I fiddled with one for a while and liked it but honestly most of the ships are pretty unattractive to me. So at VA50, after getting my butt handed to me doing exploration quests in my Escort on Normal, I bought the Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit and am quite happy.
Yes, the DPS is pretty low in comparison but it's nearly as snappy in maneuverability as an Escort and as an Engineer I feel nearly if not perhaps more tough than a Cruiser with all my defensive abilities and CC options.
For Science!
I do PvE exclusively but I'm terrible at keeping my ship inside the Escort firing arc. I spend more than half any battle broadside or backside to the enemy. If it weren't for my aft turret and mines I'd never kill anything.
I've tried Cruisers and while the firepower is nice they maneuver like pigs.
I resisted Science for a long time. I fiddled with one for a while and liked it but honestly most of the ships are pretty unattractive to me. So at VA50, after getting my butt handed to me doing exploration quests in my Escort on Normal, I bought the Long Range Science Vessel Retrofit and am quite happy.
Yes, the DPS is pretty low in comparison but it's nearly as snappy in maneuverability as an Escort and as an Engineer I feel nearly if not perhaps more tough than a Cruiser with all my defensive abilities and CC options.
For Science!
Post edited by domvina on
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I have flown all ship types in STO and have found that piloting skills are the most critical on an escort. When in a cruiser or sci equipped with beams, all I do is keep the target in my broadside firing arcs while flying at full speed. With an escort, you have to know how to keep targets close but not overshoot your target. You certainly don't want to show it your backside. Thus it is imperative that you use reverse and slower impulse speeds to keep the NPCs in your cannon firing arcs. It is difficult, almost impossible, to mouse over to the speed slider and change speed or reverse while keeping an eye on your target. Sometimes the reverse button fails to activate and you are just sitting there with diminished turn rate.
I find that escort flying requires more effort, but this is a game and players should do what they enjoy, except for grinding dilithium.
Science is for me to much Skilluse to make damage Escort feels more like skillless ships
Lastly, give yourself some time to get coordinated with how escorts move, it won't happen overnight. I remember the first time I used the bug and wasn't used to the turnrate. I ended up facing backwards quite a bit at first! But like a lot of things, a little practice made it second nature.
Tried that. They'd drill through my forward shield despite pounding the re-route hotkey.
I'm just not a "dog-fight" player. And I'm fine with that.
Don't worry. I won't tarnish your precious Elite content with my noobishness. :P
I don't like the escorts either.
Two copies of Tactical Team and some sort of shield heal (EPtS, RSP, TSS are usually preferred for this) is the correct answer to having your front shields eaten. With two copies of Tac Team, it's up essentially 100% of the time, and that ability rebalances your shield facings to the one(s) taking damage much faster than doing it manually. It's actually one of the best defensive abilities in the game because of that feature.
Joined January 2010.
In regard to hating Star Trek 2009:
The Fleet Excel is available at tier 3 fleet shipyard and is worth the price and time.
I should also point out that with LoR the RCS thruster console is getting a change that will benefit cruisers quite a bit.
Nice to know though I never used an RCS console for either of these ships.... though in saying that the Fleet Assault Cruiser could probably benefit from it a bit. Until I get the Purple Tech's for A2B build I am running a simple but effective cannon build on both of these ships with fleet DMG X2 AccX2 and have been enjoying them much more than when flying an escort.
Escorts are great and all, don't get me wrong... but the cruisers are just more fun personally. So, OP, fly whatever floats your boat... no pun intended.
Fly in a figure-8. Drop to 50% throttle as you turn, and if you're going to EM wait until after your pass is complete to do it, in order to gain distance and turn ASAP.
Provided your ship is built and slotted right, you should be able to start each pass right as your burst-DPS and defensive skills come off cooldown. Plus, you're giving your frontal and side arcs time to regenerate in preparation for the next pass. Your turrets should be on their own enough to suppress shield regeneration, and once you're practiced enough you should be getting two torpedo shots out of each pass -- one as you turn in, and a second right as you fly past (needless to say, that second should be hitting hull each and every time).
Spock's Brain.
While watching Chris "The Birdman" Anderson shoot free throws for the Miami Heat just now I came to two realizations:
1- Damn that's a lot of tattoos.
2- You can't possibly be bad at flying an escort.
If you don't trust me, trust the Birdman!
Get a Jem'hadar Dreadnought! All the cannons of an escort with none of that pesky maneuvering (cause you can't).
What you need is the Breen Destroyer. Good maneuvering, 8 weapon slots. Too bad you have to wait till Xmas to get one...
Bad turning true, but just as much Sci, more hull, and Fighters. The pets give you that much more damage and/or control
The default Q and E keys for throttle are not very intuitive since their key orientation flows from left to right. I recommend using the R key for Forward Thrust, and the F key for Reverse Thrust. The Reason: R sits above F on a standard 104 keyboard, giving you a more intuitive forward + reverse physical key orientation. Both keys are also immediately adjacent to each other, thereby allowing your left index finger to have full throttle command (unlike the default, where Q and E require index vs. ring finger, which also interferes with sustained turns).
Other recommendations:
1) Map Shield Controls and buffs to the most immediately accessible keys like keys #1-5. I use the following in all my builds: 1 = Distribute Shield Strength, 2 = EPtSx, 3 = EpTSx, 4 = TTx, 5 = TTx. This way you minimize mouse clicking over them since they are right above your maneuvering and throttle key maps.
2) Mouse thumb buttons 1 and 2 should be used for "Fire all Weapons" and "Fire all Energy Weapons." This way, you can selectively fire torpedoes after the target's shields are down, without interrupting your ship's movement and throttle controls.
I know the above sounds trivial to many, but for those who perform the bulk of their ship operations via mouse click, separating ship movement and fire controls make a HUGE difference, especially when these systems are not fighting each other for extra user key strokes and mouse-clicks.
I should amend that. I fly an escort well enough, just not as well as other ships. I always feel like I should be just a little bit better. While my gear is a little bit off, I can't get my tac/escort up to the same level of performance as my sci/carrier.
I keep trying. Maybe I'll hit on the secret some day.
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard