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What would be a good tac carrier
crazymike117
Member Posts: 16 Arc User
I would like to know what would be a good TAC carrier for my fed . I would like to get one that can use frigates but I would like to know more about the ones I can use for fed. Most information I see when I do a google search is back in 2012/2013 that's why I am making this.
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and Elite Craft. Quite good, and rather manuverable for such a large ship. Able to make effective
use of DHCannons. Frigates are also quite durable, and contribute greatly to the battles I've
been in.
For what its worth.
BCW.
"Gwah?!? But it has a SCI Cmdr station!!!"
It also has a LtCdr TAC station and a Universal Lt station as TAC options. You could use the Lt ENG/Intel Hybrid as pure ENG. Between the 2 SCI BOFF stations, that's sufficient hull heals.
4 TAC Consoles also. It fits the bill well enough.
And it's the only FREE Carrier you're going to ever get as a Fed.
Word of warning about the JHDC: You need the playable JHAS on your Active Ship List alongside a JHDC if you want the JHAS hangar units. Between the JHDC and JHAS playable ships, that is A LOT of money just to even access a hangar unit.
And being fed having Reprocity, TT,Beta,Faw, OSS at Global most of the time. Doff EPTW/S, Global. etc.
Don't have mine yet, but looking forward to trying it. It's like a Karfi, which I always liked more then the JHDC. You lose one weapon for Grav well 3 and OSS on the breen compared. And with reprocity the JHDC feels like it has tooo many tac boff slots. lol
Anyways, my tac had alot of fun in the Fleet Atrox T5U, so looking forward to testing out the Breen T6.
The Recluse can get your team to top DPS (most speedruns of ISA have one on the team) with it's Mesh Weaver Frigates.
The Breen Sarr Theln Carrier can still be had for free if you start running the races very soon, but you'll need to run a second character to get the raider if you want the frigates too (it needs the raider opened on the char before you can buy the frigates). It can be run on Tac to decent effect, Lt. Comm Tac and four Tac consoles lets it get decent DPS for a 3/3 weapon layout. With Tactical Initiative from a Tac captain and the console it comes with can keep your Tac cooldowns pretty low (console does a team-wide 33% BOff cooldown reduction).
Nothing wrong with the Armitage or even the Vesta. BUT when somebody asks for a carrier it is usually a double hangar carrier not a single hangar carrier they are asking about.
Anyways as far as the OPs question goes i had to make the same decision a month ago. I was trying to decide between the Narcine and JHDC. I wanted something that could use frigate pets, and i didnt want to try and make a Recluse, Caitian or Obelisk work. I wanted a tac carrier which meant a Cdr tac boff seat. Secondary requirement for me was a good engineering boff seat that would allow me to slot in EPTW3 and/or DEM since i was going to go with a Marion build. The only reason i did not get the JHDC is like everyone mentioned, in order to use the frigate pet i would have to buy and unpack the JHAS ship. And if you look on the exchange those cost around 400-500+ million ec.
Anyways the Narcine is very manueverable. If you get 1-2 fleet neuts with +turn on them you can easily go with DHC or DBB and not even have to worry about the turn rate. With 2 fleet neut+turn it can turn about as good as an Avenger, maybe better. The weapon layout is just like any other escort with 4/3 and it has 4 tac consoles, not 3 or 2 like other carriers. And the boff layout is pretty good too. It has a tiny bit more flexibility then the JHDC. It has an LCdr universal which you can use to slot a sci boff for GW1. Or you can use it for an engineering boff for a little more self healing or if you can go with offensive eng boff abilities. Or you can even go with another tac boff if you want to have a decent amount of beam/cannon boff abilities as well as torpedo boff abilities or something. The JHDC has a very similar boff layout to the Narcine. But you make a tradeoff...Narcine has an Ensign tac boff and Lt sci boff. With the JHDC you go to an Lt tac boff and Ensign sci boff. And you also have no universal boff seating and you are stuck with a LCdr Eng boff. Which means you will have to make do with an ensign sci boff for your only sci ability.
The JHDC is indeed a very solid carrier. I had it on my KDF ENG and flew it a lot for PVP. Good ship. However, it loses its luster these days:
Firstly, the old problem: If you don't have a playable JHAS, you can't use the JHAS Frigate Units for the JHDC. That is a huge knock against the JHDC.
Secondly, the best the JHDC is ever going to be is T5U with all the limitations that entails. Cryptic isn't doing anything more for T5/T5U except reducing them to the level of "Mirror Box Ships." The last 3 ships introduced to STO?
Fed Pathfinder - Tier 6
Breen Sarr Theln Carrier - Tier 6
Elachi Sheshar - Tier 6
STO has always had Power Creep, and the game has already gone past T5/T5U the day DR came out.
The JHDC can still be a great ship. But with DR and the move to T6, it's on its last legs of validity. The first T6 Carrier has arrived and you can only expect to see more as time goes.
I would not invest resources into a ship belonging to a tier that's already in the pit of obsolescence. Unless you can acquire it for a scam price.
The only other alternatives that are both dedicated Carriers and capable of using Frigate pets are the Xindi Narcine Dreadnought Carrier, the Tholian Recluse, and the Breen Sarr Theln. However, they're aren't as tac-oriented, but can still do reasonably well commanded by one (I use the Recluse on a Tac with wonderful results).
The Xindi Dreadnought Carrier does have a modest Tac-oriented role as well, and it's Frigate pets IIRC, are available to purchase as soon as you unbox the ship. However, it's T5.
The Sarr Theln is the only T6 Carrier, and DOES require the Breen Raider as well to unlock the Frigates, and the only way to do this within the available time is run two characters through the solo Ice Race and have one focus on the Carrier and the other on the Raider, then do one more race to unlock the Raider on the one that wants to use the Carrier. It is flexible enough to be Tac-Oriented though, with 4 Tac Console slots.
If you're willing to forgo Frigates and a second hangar, you have a few more options, though only one of them is a dedicated Tac-oriented ship (the Armitage Escort Carrier). The rest are all flexible to varying degrees.
The next closest is the T6 Elachi Sheshar, with 4 Tac consoles, a 5/3 weapon loadout, and a Lt. Cmdr Uni to work a Tac in. In addition, it can become its own mini-fleet with the addition of the Monbosh console and it's own console to split it into two.
Then there's the T5 Jem'Hadar Heavy Escort Carrier (can use JHAS frigates but still requires a JHAS), with a Cmdr Tac seat and 4 Tac Consoles.
And the Voth Flight Deck Cruiser and Voth Bulwark Dreadnought Cruiser can also serve as a modest Tac-oriented ship with hangar capability, though the Palisade only has 3 Tac consoles and the Bulwark only has 2 Tac consoles.
Last two choices are the Vesta Strategic variant and the Galaxy-X, but between the two, you'd get more Tac capability out of the Vesta with it's Lt. Cmdr Universal on top of its Lt Tac seat, compared to the Ensign Universal and Lt Tac seat of the Galaxy-X.
If and when a T6 Tactical-bent lockbox carrier comes out, it'll be a different story. Though, it's usually a bit between when Cryptic ships of the same type for Event/Lockbox, so you'll likely be waiting a while before any other T6 carriers come out. Good long wait between the Chell and other destroyers, the next raider after the Breen Raider was the buff to the Aquarius Fed side then the Kazon, so it might be quite a wait.
Going back to the JHDC, it does have one advantage over the Narcine at the moment, it's cheap. With the frenzy for the new Sheshar, Lobi stuff has dropped drastically in price on the Exchange. You can get he JHDC for <90 Mil EC, but the Narcine is ~130 Mil. If prices stay down for Lobi stuff long enough, you can grind for one of those easier than a Narcine. The JHDC is a slow boat, has limited flexibility with only a Lt. Universal slot, and you can't buy frigates for it without having the JHAS opened on the same char, but it's still a nice ship and 40 Mil is a pretty large gap.
As for the Armitage, I had quite a bit of fun in it when I was flying one, but there's a large difference between an Heavy Escort Carrier and a full two-hangar carrier. The torp console should be pretty nice buffed with both Adapted MACO and the Dyson arsenal two-sets.
The Narcine still gets my vote for top Tactical carrier at the moment, and likely for a while (even being more expensive then the JHDC). For reference, I have the Sarr Theln (Tribble only, a few days left before I have it live), Jem'Hadar Dreadnought Carrier (no JHAS frigates though), mirror and prime Vo'Quv, Fleet and C-Store Kar'fi Battle Carrier and the Xindi-Aquatic Narcine Dreadnought Carrier in my personal dual-hangar lineup, along with the Armitage Heavy Escort Carrier, Jem'Hadar Heavy Escort Carrier and the Vesta three-set in my single-hangar lineup.
you should try the Delta flyers they hit quite nicely. but only allows you to have 4 out in total.
And IMO, I think people are Under-Estimating the value of T6 versus T5U.
I did the same thing as you, Transfered way to many copies to tribble to actually be able to test it. Both to get the Sarr Theln and to get the Raider for at least Advanced Frigates. And IMO, if the ship was available in the C-Store I'd purchase it instantly for $30. Wish there was a feasable way to get it NOW instead of this race every day. Lobi is NOT an option.
That said, it depends on what you wanna do, how you wanna play. I enjoy having something more to do then Fly in a circle as a Disco ball. My Tac is specced into Flow and particle.
The loss of a weapon aint as much a big deal when you get OSS, Energy Siphon, Grav Well 3, Tachyon Beam, Etc going on. Things melt.
I Also value it more because this is a FED toon and I have Reprocity + Battle Ready. So I don't need more then 1 copy of any tac boff slots.
Doff Engineering team, and Emergency Power to X, and Deflector abilities. (2 DCE, 2 Maint, 2 Deflec off)
So Grav Well 3, Tachyon beam, Energy Siphon, EPTS, EPTW, ET, TT, Beta, OSS and FAW are all at global 90% of the time.
With all power levels at max 95% of the time and above when OSS is running. Which buffs everyhing.
Without Reprocity I'd value the Ship alot lower. But, with it, it changes the game. The setup I'm gonna run, that I tested on Tribble is this.
http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skillplanner/?build=nosferatu20_0
The Nuetronium is a place holder. Ill play with that spot aftr I get it on live. Don't need it. But it went Epic on me so its there for now. lol
10 of my 13 abilities are on global, or right at Global.
Not that T5U is'nt still more then you need, or not powerful. But, people underestimate T6 too much. And this ship is a beast when you set it up right.
Sure you can take the Sarr Theln or if you're lucky maybe a Sheshar...but they just aren't going to do the raw damage of the Narcine or JHDC.
Consider that to get a T5/T5U TAC Carrier, how much resources do you have to spend these days? Especially the best one with the total package:
JHDC + JHAS Hangar Units.
I own that ship still, with the JHAS units. Still very solid, capable ship. But the OP doesn't have that, and I'd wager to say that he doesn't have the playable JHAS as well. If you want "the total package" of the JHDC, that's a lot to ask for if you have none of the 2 required ships.
Narcine? How much is that going to cost you to get a T5 ship which, as I mentioned, is a T5 ship and on the pit of obsolescence?
How much is the potent Recluse going to cost you in the exchange? What about Lobi?
These Carriers (single hangared ones are not carriers despite the name. The hangar is a gimmick and not a true carrier) are capable still. True, esp when the ONLY T6 Carrier is Cmdr SCI.
However, what do you got to give up to have a T6 Breen Sarr Theln Carrier? Just time. You need to accumulate the pictures and turn them in for 1000. If the player is clever, another character will do the same with the Plesh Brek. Regardless, both can be attained.... FREE. Which is not what you can say about the JHDC (esp if you want its frigates), Narcine, or Recluse.
And the Sarr Theln, though not having a Cmdr TAC station, has enough offensive capability to make it matter than the Atrox, Obelisk. And the Plesh Breks somehow keep their noses pointed close enough to keep blazing away with their narrow arc weapons. Basically it's a different take on the KDF's Kar'Fi style of play.
And it as well as its frigates can be attained.
FREE.
And they're T6.
While T6 ships have a lot of nice toys, nothing I've seen so far makes the Narcine obsolete. While I don't have the full Delta Rising pack, I do have some T6s (both full Intel and 'just' T6) besides the Sarr Theln, and I'm not seeing any reason to retire it. Plenty of reasons to take the T6 Starship Traits and use them on it, but not replace entirely. While it starts out as T5, as soon as you hit level 50 you can upgrade it to T5-U for free, giving it scaling hull, a 11th console (Engineering) and a nice offensive carrier mastery pack.
It is fairly expensive, but very, very nice for someone wanting a nice Tac carrier.
About $30 if you sell the R&D Promo Packs right now. Mildly expensive for a single char unlock, but if you use a C-Store T6 on a single char it comes out to the same cost really.
It does have that going for it. If someone is on the fence about Tac carrier play, it is an excelent start. Though, you can grind in-game resources and get a Narcine or JHDC. It is more time intensive and complex than just running the same track for 25 days, but doable. Even the JHAS can be gotten with enough grinding and patience (beyond my patience, but 350 Mil when the promotion for that ship is active is doable). A good chunk of my Lockbox ships I paid nothing out of pocket for, and if one does want to pay out of pocket, they are pretty cheap right now for anything sold in the Lobi store, and still somewhat cheap compared to usual.
If you are serious about upgrading your gear and not a scrub (someone with all mk XII gear), then an 8 beam cruiser will do more DPS.
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