The Jem'hidar bug ship is a real great ship, but its going to be very expensive.
The Steamrunner class is a killer ship, it is essentially a more engineering geared Defiant class ship.
The Fleet Defiant can potentially be the most devastating ship in the game. Geared up and run with as much into the speed and guns you have an incredible ship dealing out a ton of damage and the ability to out run and out gun most anything in the game.
Fleet Defiant- A solid ship, cloak, Solid damage, good maneuverability, has ok HP, very Fed.
JHAS- Solid damage, Lots of health, great maneuverability, has superior set options.
Andorian Kumari- Best damage of the set, with 5/2, good maneuverability, andorian phasers are cool and their fleet version is pretty solid, has the set consoles for those interested, weakness remains hp.
Wow, I loved reading this thread. But this is a real hard question to answer. So I will put my two cents in.
1. Best escort in the game without spending any money in the zen store would have to be the Patrol Escort. It has three eng powers this allows you to run two copies of EPtS1 and A2Sif. Makes this ship tanky. It is good in PVE and PvP. Of course the fleet version is better.
2. Best escort for NWS is the MVAE. This is because of the Lt commander science ability that will allow you to throw GW1. Other ships can be used but, for the average player this would be my recommendation.
3. Now talking zen store ship you can not go wrong with the Kumari 3 pack. I personally lie the science version because you can run the same load out in the boff spots as the Patrol Escort. The 5/2 weapons slot makes it nasty also. With the science version you can run four field gens, or run the console that increases shield regen rate, name eludes me right now.
4. The most fun in my opinion is the Defiant. Although I would love to see two things happen to it. I would love to see battle cloak. I have read all the pros and cons, but from a logical look how does the system different. You either have cloak or you don't. I would also love to see the ensign slot be universal. To get these bonuses I would give up a rear weapon and hull, this ship is small enough to be considered a raider. This extra tac slot is a hinderance in most of my builds never now what to do with the third ensign slot. I know a PvPer that runs a third tac team just in case of being SNB, he has one until the debuff rolls off.
5. The most tanky of the Escorts has to be the Heavy Escort Carrier, Armitage. The pet spam can help in dps. I own it but I never fly it.
Rare ships.
6. The Mobius is the most versatile Escort in the game. It has two uni boff slots, one being a tl commander.
7. The bug ship, you can not go wrong with it. It has higher shields, hull, and a awesome turn rate. Uni boff slots. There is no reason why this can't be the best escort in the game, although I do see where some other escorts might be better at doing a specific roll.
There is absolutely no such thing as a "best" escort... There is a reason to have multiple escorts to match everyone's needs... My opinion. But my favourite would still have to be the defiant.
The only escort that held my attention used to be the MV/FAE.
Once I got my Mobius... I may never fly another escort. I don't even want a JHAS anymore.
Edit: A Mobius or a Chel Grett would be just about as good as a MV in NWS, the speed on a Beta Vector would be nice, the other 2 have a slightly better boff layout and are tankier.
I once again match my character. Behold the power of PINK!
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
Some nice necroposting going on... Such a thread becomes quickly obsolete, so it would be better to close this one down and to open a new one at the turn of each season.
There is absolutely no such thing as a "best" escort... There is a reason to have multiple escorts to match everyone's needs... My opinion. But my favourite would still have to be the defiant.
*shoots imonfire3 in both feet for re-necroing a previously necroed thread*
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
i would think it would depend on if youa re solo or on a team. if I knew i was flying with a Defiant-R I would ue the MVAM. nothing better than a grav well to group the probes together to suffer at the hand of a teammate decloaking for the alpha.
You could have a bug and be an utter failure with it as well.
Ha ha ... this is true. I know a lot of people who have this ship and like all good ships they seemed to assume it would be an "I win" button and instead find themselves in re-spawn hell over and over again. Now with that said I have to say that it is arguably the best escort out there. Turn rate of a raider, 5 tac console slots for crazy damage, and two Lt Uni's for build flexibility.
*shoots vetteguy904 in both feet and a kneecap for re-necroing a thread that has been necroed twice already*
*shoots rylanadionysis in both feet and both kneecaps*
*shoots masterfiretroll in both feet, both kneecaps, and a kidney*
*shoots ursusmorologus in all previously mentioned organs and both kidneys*
*shoots nikephorus in all previously mentioned organs and an elbow*
*shoots zeuxidemus001 in all previously mentioned organs and both elbows*
*reloads* Anyone else?
This.Thread.Has.Been.Necroed.
Stop.Posting.In.It.
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
or you can use the advanced escort with the mvam console and get just as good dmg as a tact escort (crf2 + thy 3 + apo 3 = yummysauce). I just wish the fleet version had the same boff layout instead of the ltcmdr sci.
Are you kidding? The Lt. Cdr Science is what makes the ship so outrageously awesome.
Are you kidding? The Lt. Cdr Science is what makes the ship so outrageously awesome.
*shoots kublakhan in all previously mentioned organs and an ear*
"Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
— Sabaton, "Great War"
I've been running escorts since I started this game way back when(season 1).. I prefer my defiant-r over the bug ship. Play style!!!
*Side rant*
What's the point on running an escort any more with almost every new ship being able to equip dual cannons now. Talk about breaking game balance. They need to reset the DPS power cap to pre-season 3?(I forget when they Nerfed it). It used to be you delt damage at your max power level now it's hard caped at 125, you still pull power form your max, but you don't do damage at that rating just at 125. They need to undo that, to give escorts back what they are currently taking form them, the desire to role one. Let's face it, with a RTS, E>PE, APD, APO and other evasive speed/turn buffs some of these dual cannon welding capital ships almost give a player no reason to role an escort any more.
I'm the original @Gurga, accept no substitute. I would have used my handle but, that would have been too much to ask. Seeing as I use it for every other forum I visit.
LTS subscriber and member since 2009.
I own most of the aforementioned ships. Here's my take on the subject. The JHAS is still the overall best escort in the game. There are other ships that do one thing better than the bug, but none have to "total package." For example, the Andorian escorts out DPS them, but don't turn as well, or have the survivability. The Defiant-R is great for alpha strikes, but if you don't kill your target in the initial attack you're screwed. The B'rel has decent alpha and an insane turn rate, but has no third rear weapon slot, and a weak hull. The patrol escort has excellent survivability, but less DPS and a slower turn rate. And Raptors? Meh, they're raptors, and STO will never fix them. The combination of DPS, agility, and survivability is what keeps the JHAS oh top.
Disclaimer: This is simply my opinion. Individual results may vary. Past performance is no indication of future returns. If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, call every woman you know.
I'm about as hardcore a tac player as one can be methinks. I have several tac toons and am now in the process of ultra specializing in different platforms for each one in each faction. For what it is worth I currently believe the following based on my experience since prerelease - YMMV:
With that said, my new most loved ship with a serious identity crisis is the Xindi-Aquatic Narcine Dreadnought Carrier! it is truly an escort at heart methinks. It is now my primary UFP tac toons principal ship.
Note: I'm currently testing the Phantom. I've not really developed an opinion on it yet as I've been having far too much fun with the Narcine.
* = Not really an escort but it is the best none boxed Romulan tac ship for lack of better words.
If you are looking for an excellent PvE fleet consider: Omega Combat Division today.
Former member of the Cryptic Family & FriendsTesting Team. Sadly, one day, it simply vanished - without a word or trace...
I have the Phantom and to me it blows the defiant out of the water. I call it the next generation defiant. And the lance is awesome and I only had it miss once.....better damage THE THE GAL X.
Phantom is seriously cool to fly. It absolutely ravages the mirror event NPCs .
It's essentially an upgraded version of the defiant, it's what he Tactical Escort should have been (if you ignore the intel stuff).
But seriously, use the gather intel ability on a boss ship, buff up your weapons and attack patterns and once you get the target vulnerable fire off the lance for some shield penetrating damage that can easily be into the 100-200K region. It's enough to knock a sizable chunk off many of the newer advanced NPCs even. Plus surgical strikes adds something serious to any crit builds you might think of making.
Plus the build in cloak is a nice bonus, saves console space.
Once this ships goes fleet level it'll no doubt get another eng. slot I'd imagine so that'll make it even tough if you want extra armour or give room for more uni stuff.
Comments
The Steamrunner class is a killer ship, it is essentially a more engineering geared Defiant class ship.
The Fleet Defiant can potentially be the most devastating ship in the game. Geared up and run with as much into the speed and guns you have an incredible ship dealing out a ton of damage and the ability to out run and out gun most anything in the game.
On the fed side Andorian ships running Andorian fleet phasers with the 3-piece console set put out the most DPS, but are squishy as heck.
Fleet Defiant- A solid ship, cloak, Solid damage, good maneuverability, has ok HP, very Fed.
JHAS- Solid damage, Lots of health, great maneuverability, has superior set options.
Andorian Kumari- Best damage of the set, with 5/2, good maneuverability, andorian phasers are cool and their fleet version is pretty solid, has the set consoles for those interested, weakness remains hp.
1. Best escort in the game without spending any money in the zen store would have to be the Patrol Escort. It has three eng powers this allows you to run two copies of EPtS1 and A2Sif. Makes this ship tanky. It is good in PVE and PvP. Of course the fleet version is better.
2. Best escort for NWS is the MVAE. This is because of the Lt commander science ability that will allow you to throw GW1. Other ships can be used but, for the average player this would be my recommendation.
3. Now talking zen store ship you can not go wrong with the Kumari 3 pack. I personally lie the science version because you can run the same load out in the boff spots as the Patrol Escort. The 5/2 weapons slot makes it nasty also. With the science version you can run four field gens, or run the console that increases shield regen rate, name eludes me right now.
4. The most fun in my opinion is the Defiant. Although I would love to see two things happen to it. I would love to see battle cloak. I have read all the pros and cons, but from a logical look how does the system different. You either have cloak or you don't. I would also love to see the ensign slot be universal. To get these bonuses I would give up a rear weapon and hull, this ship is small enough to be considered a raider. This extra tac slot is a hinderance in most of my builds never now what to do with the third ensign slot. I know a PvPer that runs a third tac team just in case of being SNB, he has one until the debuff rolls off.
5. The most tanky of the Escorts has to be the Heavy Escort Carrier, Armitage. The pet spam can help in dps. I own it but I never fly it.
Rare ships.
6. The Mobius is the most versatile Escort in the game. It has two uni boff slots, one being a tl commander.
7. The bug ship, you can not go wrong with it. It has higher shields, hull, and a awesome turn rate. Uni boff slots. There is no reason why this can't be the best escort in the game, although I do see where some other escorts might be better at doing a specific roll.
Once I got my Mobius... I may never fly another escort. I don't even want a JHAS anymore.
Edit: A Mobius or a Chel Grett would be just about as good as a MV in NWS, the speed on a Beta Vector would be nice, the other 2 have a slightly better boff layout and are tankier.
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
Helpful Tools: Dictionary.com - Logical fallacies - Random generator - Word generator - Color tool - Extra Credits - List of common English language errors - New T6 Big booty tutorial
Fleet Admiral Space Orphidian Possiblities Wizard
*shoots imonfire3 in both feet for re-necroing a previously necroed thread*
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
If you are a good player you could fly a miranda and make it good.
You could have a bug and be an utter failure with it as well.
Read into that as much as you will.
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
A2B Boff layout +phaser lotus+Tachyon Inversion Beam.
While in Regenerative Mode you feel like your in sci ship with multi-targeting
while in Tactical Mode Accuracy bonus +more multi-targeting
Add the right Boff's for AEO multi-targeting effects....
Bug ship is obsolete.........
Ha ha ... this is true. I know a lot of people who have this ship and like all good ships they seemed to assume it would be an "I win" button and instead find themselves in re-spawn hell over and over again. Now with that said I have to say that it is arguably the best escort out there. Turn rate of a raider, 5 tac console slots for crazy damage, and two Lt Uni's for build flexibility.
*shoots rylanadionysis in both feet and both kneecaps*
*shoots masterfiretroll in both feet, both kneecaps, and a kidney*
*shoots ursusmorologus in all previously mentioned organs and both kidneys*
*shoots nikephorus in all previously mentioned organs and an elbow*
*shoots zeuxidemus001 in all previously mentioned organs and both elbows*
*reloads* Anyone else?
This. Thread. Has. Been. Necroed.
Stop. Posting. In. It.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
Good thing I dont need my legs to type
Fleet Admiral Rylana - Fed Tac - U.S.S Wild Card - Tactical Miracle Worker Cruiser
Lifetime Subscriber since 2012 == 17,200 Accolades = RIP PvP and Vice Squad
Chief of Starfleet Intelligence Service == Praise Cheesus
Are you kidding? The Lt. Cdr Science is what makes the ship so outrageously awesome.
*shoots kublakhan in all previously mentioned organs and an ear*
— Sabaton, "Great War"
Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
*Side rant*
What's the point on running an escort any more with almost every new ship being able to equip dual cannons now. Talk about breaking game balance. They need to reset the DPS power cap to pre-season 3?(I forget when they Nerfed it). It used to be you delt damage at your max power level now it's hard caped at 125, you still pull power form your max, but you don't do damage at that rating just at 125. They need to undo that, to give escorts back what they are currently taking form them, the desire to role one. Let's face it, with a RTS, E>PE, APD, APO and other evasive speed/turn buffs some of these dual cannon welding capital ships almost give a player no reason to role an escort any more.
LTS subscriber and member since 2009.
The Tal Shiar Adapted Battlecruiser is the best escort in the game.
http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=244532
is a good reference to build for escorts.
What are your thoughts on the new T6 Phantom Intel Escort?
Disclaimer: This is simply my opinion. Individual results may vary. Past performance is no indication of future returns. If you have an erection lasting more than four hours, call every woman you know.
Box: JHAS
UFP: Defiant (F)-R
KDF: B'rel (F)-R
RSE: Mogai* (F)-R
With that said, my new most loved ship with a serious identity crisis is the Xindi-Aquatic Narcine Dreadnought Carrier! it is truly an escort at heart methinks. It is now my primary UFP tac toons principal ship.
Note: I'm currently testing the Phantom. I've not really developed an opinion on it yet as I've been having far too much fun with the Narcine.
* = Not really an escort but it is the best none boxed Romulan tac ship for lack of better words.
ingame: @.Spartan
Original Cryptic Forum Name: Spartan (member #124)
The Glorious, Kirk’s Protegè
It's essentially an upgraded version of the defiant, it's what he Tactical Escort should have been (if you ignore the intel stuff).
But seriously, use the gather intel ability on a boss ship, buff up your weapons and attack patterns and once you get the target vulnerable fire off the lance for some shield penetrating damage that can easily be into the 100-200K region. It's enough to knock a sizable chunk off many of the newer advanced NPCs even. Plus surgical strikes adds something serious to any crit builds you might think of making.
Plus the build in cloak is a nice bonus, saves console space.
Once this ships goes fleet level it'll no doubt get another eng. slot I'd imagine so that'll make it even tough if you want extra armour or give room for more uni stuff.