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Engineering or Science Captain?
alphahydri
Member Posts: 391 Arc User
So I want to make a character built around the Varanus Fleet Support Vessel and the three Gorn consoles (Barrier Field Generator, Aceton Assimilators, Repair Platforms), but I'm having trouble deciding what to use. I know Science seems to be the optimum choice for the Varanus, but since I could make an Engineering captain and just spec my skill points into Science talents, the only real difference would be the various captain abilities and kits for both space and ground combat, right?
I tend to get picky about aesthetics, and that's really my main hang-up here. I want to use phaser weapons on both my ship and on the ground, which are orange in color, and most Engineering abilities are orange/yellow too. The Varanus also has orange/yellow lighting, and the Barrier Field Generator is basically a Cover Shield in space, which is an Engineering ground ability (and is also orange!). So, as you can tell, I really like aesthetic consistency, but I'm worried that doing what I want to do might hamper my gameplay performance.
I guess what I'm asking is, would any of you people recommend using an Engineering captain specced for Science skills on a Science ship, or would it be better just to stay traditional and use a Science captain on a Science ship?
I tend to get picky about aesthetics, and that's really my main hang-up here. I want to use phaser weapons on both my ship and on the ground, which are orange in color, and most Engineering abilities are orange/yellow too. The Varanus also has orange/yellow lighting, and the Barrier Field Generator is basically a Cover Shield in space, which is an Engineering ground ability (and is also orange!). So, as you can tell, I really like aesthetic consistency, but I'm worried that doing what I want to do might hamper my gameplay performance.
I guess what I'm asking is, would any of you people recommend using an Engineering captain specced for Science skills on a Science ship, or would it be better just to stay traditional and use a Science captain on a Science ship?
Post edited by alphahydri on
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Short version:
Are you thinking Exotic Damage or Drain for your build-type? If Exotic Damage, a Science Captain would be better, if Drain you can be either Profession and do just fine.
More info:
The addition of the Secondary Deflectors has altered that to some extent, as they allow Drain setups to use the drain/debuff powers to apply Radiation damage... something a Science captain can do better thanks to Conservation of Energy. Of course, Tactical can usually do even better at applying damage due to Tactical abilities boosting Exotic damage.
Still, the Engineering abilities can provide a solid boost to you defenses and durability, freeing up some space for offense, and a Drain build generally keeps your power levels high enough to routinely pass EPS to your Rommie teammates. It's more a matter of considering what you're trying to accomplish first, then using your captain and boff abilities to balance that out. If you go Eng, I'd also suggest picking up a Genetic Resequencer for Fleet Technician... Engineering Fleet is nigh upon useless without it thanks to diminishing returns on DRM, but with it you can provide a team-wide hull HoT every now and again.
That's just my experience, though... others might have better information/advice.
Science captains have the advantage in traits like the exotic damage one and the photonic capacitor for photonic fleet, the former helps you do more damage with sci abilities and the latter is just fun to use. Your other abilities are aimed towards debuffing targets or buffing your team, which complements the team support role science vessels (ought) to have in this game.
But if you want to be able to do damage, namely Exotic Damage on a Science Vessels? I'd recommend a TAC Captain first and foremost with SCI Captain not even worthy compared to TAC.
SCI Captain's only real claim to fame for Exotic Damage is "Conservation of Energy" trait that stacks up to 3 for 30% total bonus damage. The catch is that you must be getting shot at. That's no problem if you're doing single-player content. But in team instances, especially with the damage capability some guys out there do, you may struggle to get NPCs to shoot at you to stack Conservation of Energy to 3.
The nice thing with Conservation of Energy is that there's no cooldown. Just get shot at. But it is a disadvantage in that in multiplayer, it can be hard to get that with some teams before you can fire off your best Exotic Damage series of attacks.
Then we have TAC Captain. For a playstyle that is built on surging, spiking your best Exotic Damage series of attacks, TAC Captains are infinitely superior. Attack Pattern Alpha enhances ALL damage, lasts a good duration, and enhances Crit related stats, too. APA is a Captain ability and you are not giving up a valuable BOFF slot, Console slot, Trait slot for it. Conservation of Energy requires sacrificing a Captain Trait slot.
Both TAC & SCI have debuffers but TAC is better. Sensor Scan for SCI, Fire On My Mark for TAC. FOMM has a much stronger resist debuff. TAC Captain wins again.
Then there's the "Fleet" abilities. Tactical Fleet and Science Fleet. Science Fleet does absolutely NOTHING for enhancing Science's CC, Exotic Damage, Drain Builds, Disabling abilities. NOTHING. Tactical Fleet on the other hand? MOAR damage increase.
Also, TAC Captain has "Tactical Initiative." Lessen the CD of Tactical BOFF abilities. Why does that matter on a Science Build, Exotic Damage Build? Easy. Because you can slot on some Science Vessels a LtCdr TAC station. That means Attack Pattern Omega 1 getting a shorter CD.
The only issue a TAC Captain has is that his abilities have CDs, while Conservation of Energy Trait for SCI doesn't. But I told you about getting those shots in first to get the CoE stack of 3 before you do your best attacks. On the other hand, when a TAC Captain is ready and has his stuff off CD? Pop these abilities:
Attack Pattern Alpha III
Fire On My Mark III
Tactical Fleet III
If you have it, Attack Pattern Omega I
If your hull is down enough, pop Go Down Fighting
If you want to do the best damage you can do on a Science Vessel, the answer isn't an Engineer. It definitely isn't a Science Captain. If you want to do THE BEST Exotic Damage attacks and dictate when and where to do them, TAC Captain is the best choice. Easily. Hands down. SCI Captain has no purpose outside PVP. Subnuc in PVE is pointless when NPCs are lucky to be found with 1 buff running on them. None of SCI Captain enhances the primary duties a Science Vessel does:
SCI Captains do not make Science Vessels do better:
Crowd Control
Drain Builds/High Flow Caps Build
Subsystem Disables (VM, PSW, Tricobalts, etc)
SCI Captains can't even make Sensor Analysis better.
SCI Captains are just horrible.
TAC Captains on a Exotic Damage build are INFINITELY better, more fun, more flashy with huge damage numbers. This isn't a contest at all.
You obviously haven't been dealing with the right Science Captains. I'm a little busy right now so I don't have time to go into a detailed explanation, but let's just say for now that Science is OP on ground and building for it is quite easy.
Does kind of stand out like a sore thumb...majority of exotic abilities being AoE - an AoE debuff would be superior to a single target debuff sort of thing.
Not to mention all those nice things with TAC Captains can be done when the player dictates, regardless of the skill level/DPS capability of a group. If you're a SCI Captain on a good DPS team, have fun in trying to get your Conservation of Energy 3-stack. Because until you get that 3-stack, your SCI Captain will be utterly useless in his Exotic Attacks. You may as well not slot COE Trait.
Not so with TAC Captain.
YOU decide when to surge your attacks.
YOU decide when to pop your high powered alpha strike buffs.
YOU decide when to execute your spike with Exotic Damage.
The initiative is always with the TAC Captain to carry out his best strikes with any attacks when and where ever he decides. Standard Pew-Pew or Exotic. Regardless if he's in a bad PUG, a PUG with some good players, or in a well-honed team that churns out good damage. He does NOT have to wait to get aggro before he can do his best Exotic Attacks. Not like SCI Captain does to get his Conservation of Energy 3 stack before he can do anything.
A whole different story will be the other half of the game: ground. Here the two careers differ a lot. As science captain you have "magic", i.e. exothermic induction field fire, ground gravity wells, debuffing and lots of heals. As engineer you have nice gadgets, i.e. turrets, mortars, drones, mines and you can shield tank.
Well, it seems you do not like science captains. Of course, APA3 is stronger than conservation of energy, but the latter does not come with a cooldown. It is always active as long as you are under fire. Subnuc is not useless in PvE. When was the last time you fought the borg queen with her feedback pulse up? Or Donatra with all her abilities? Subnuc has it's use in PvE, too. Science captains have sensor scan to debuff a whole group of targets. With a sensor doff you can even decrease their damage. Why is that useless? Photonic fleet with short cooldown thanks to photonic capacitor? Useless? Scattering field with +100 to damage resist at high aux for yourself and nearby team mates? Useless? OK, this one does not increase damage, but how many defensive abilities do tac captains have?
It makes me wonder why they even offered us classes/careers in the first place.
But refining them careers won't make them the quick buck that is the sole focus of Cryptic/PWE. It's no longer about making a great and fun game, it's about lock boxes, new multi-pack ships, new factions, new max level increases to sell similar ships all over again. The entire financial model now is about exploitation, STO is run and developed by Quark and his associates.
How often have they done something just to make the game better with no grind or price tag attached? Pilot abilities give to all escorts? Nope only to a new class of ship. What about the crafting revamp? Nope just another grind, I bet few of us saw that coming. What about the upgrade of items? A grind and dilithium tag was added to that as well.
At this point hoping that they'll fix it so a science ship works best with a science Captain is at best a pipe dream like getting a KDF science ship, or hoping the BOP line will be fixed to be viable at end game with all the power creep.
I refer to you my earlier post in this thread.
Science Captains do nothing better in Science builds than anyone else. Conservation of Energy Trait looks great on paper, but as you'll see in my linked post, it's not all that great and will be problematic if you have DPSers in your group, PUG or otherwise. I also emphasize that to have Conservation of Energy, you're giving up a valuable Personal Trait Slot. A TAC Captain on the other hand? Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Fleet, Fire On My Mark, Go Down Fighting are Captain ABILITIES. They come with any TAC Captain build, no matter what. They are NOT giving up any trait, BOFF, equipment slot. It's always there, no matter what. Unlike Conservation of Energy, where a Trait Slot has to be sacrificed.
On the flip side, Tactical Captains can do their high powered sequence whenever they wish.
Subnuc? Subnuc is only useful in ONE place. PVP. In PVE, it's not important. NPCs at any difficulty and any content you can find, are lucky to even be found with ONE buff running. In PVP, players can be found with a row of buffs so long that it can be quite difficult to do anything to them. But Subnuc a player, and now that guy has problems.
But since DR, Cryptic has implemented Buff Stripping tools that don't require a SCI Captain at all. Intel's Subnucleonic Carrier Wave (the thing the Herald BBs and Dread like to do). Iconian T4 Rep Trait. There's another one I'm missing but can't recall ATM but there is a 3rd one. And the way Cryptic's been going, I wouldn't be surprised if Subnuc-like abilities are handed out more. If one insists on having buff stripping capability, you don't need a SCI Captain for that. More SCI Captain obsolescence.
Sensor Scan? So what? Not when a TAC Captain just runs SO MANY TAC Captain offensive buffs. When they got APA3, Tactical Fleet running, watch the hell out. FOMM is just icing on the cake, the main target. If they game the system to have Go Down Fighting going on, watch out! With AHOD, it gets ridiculous.
Scattering Field? Inconsequential. Is it making your Exotic Damage Build hit that much harder? Is it making your Drain Build better? Is it making your CC build better? No. If I want resists, Polarize Hull, especially on a High Aux Science Build practically makes you immune already. Pop Hazard Emitters if you so wish to keep yourself in tip-top shape.
TAC Captains "defensive" abilities are simply this: Killing things before they destroy them. Also, depending on the ship, the player can implement their own set of defensive abilities. I refer again to my earlier example of a High Aux Power Build with Polarize Hull. Not to mention any healing/repair abilities that run off High Aux Power making them better. You do NOT need a SCI Captain for that.
Again, SCI Captain skills do NOT boost Skillboxes that are relevant to the key Science Builds. Science Fleet does nothing important for these builds. SCI Captain abilities do NOT boost Particle Generator, Graviton Generator, Subspace Decompiler, Flow Capacitor Skillboxes. Sensor Scan, Science Fleet, you name it... does nothing to improve the main Science Builds out there. Astrophysicist Trait? That's not a SCI Captain exclusive deal.
But when we come down to damage with Exotic Builds, TAC Captain wins in a massive landslide.
I say this as a player with tons of toons between the 3 factions, with several characters in each Captain type. I've flown them all extensively in PVE and PVP in the past. As time progressed, all this TRIBBLE I just said? It becomes just much, much more apparent. I'm not saying I'm happy with it. I'm actually displeased with it. But that is the reality of the game. It was actually hard to pry my Fed Captain away from the Scryer to work on another Starship Mastery.
In Space PVE, where a lot of this game is based, SCI Captain has no role.
That's a curious opinion.
"Science Captains do nothing better in Science builds than anyone else."
AOE debuff with sensor scan?
"Conservation of Energy Trait looks great on paper, but as you'll see in my linked post, it's not all that great and will be problematic if you have DPSers in your group, PUG or otherwise. I also emphasize that to have Conservation of Energy, you're giving up a valuable Personal Trait Slot."
I do not see that problem. There is threat generation and threat increasing consoles from the embassy. My conservation of energy tooltip (x3) is up most of time. And valuable trait? That one is valuable, if you have a lot of them, but most of the (useful) space traits are pretty expensive. For an average player this won't be a problem.
"A TAC Captain on the other hand? Attack Pattern Alpha, Tactical Fleet, Fire On My Mark, Go Down Fighting are Captain ABILITIES. They come with any TAC Captain build, no matter what. They are NOT giving up any trait, BOFF, equipment slot. It's always there, no matter what. Unlike Conservation of Energy, where a Trait Slot has to be sacrificed."
Sure, but comparing four captain abilities with one trait seems a bit unfair. Science captains have abilties, too (I know, I know, they do not increase exotic damage...)
"On the flip side, Tactical Captains can do their high powered sequence whenever they wish."
They still have a cooldown.
"Subnuc? Subnuc is only useful in ONE place. PVP. In PVE, it's not important. NPCs at any difficulty and any content you can find, are lucky to even be found with ONE buff running. In PVP, players can be found with a row of buffs so long that it can be quite difficult to do anything to them. But Subnuc a player, and now that guy has problems."
I commented on that before. Look at the borg queen, donatra, other bosses. They can come with a couple of buffs, e.g. feed back pulse. Also normal Mogai war birds come with attack pattern alpha and other tac buff. Subnuc is still useful in PvE. We can agree that subnuc doffs and victory is life is less useful in PvE (don't know about PvP here).
"But since DR, Cryptic has implemented Buff Stripping tools that don't require a SCI Captain at all. Intel's Subnucleonic Carrier Wave (the thing the Herald BBs and Dread like to do). Iconian T4 Rep Trait. There's another one I'm missing but can't recall ATM but there is a 3rd one. And the way Cryptic's been going, I wouldn't be surprised if Subnuc-like abilities are handed out more. If one insists on having buff stripping capability, you don't need a SCI Captain for that. More SCI Captain obsolescence."
We are talking about science vessels here, right? How many of them do have intel slots? Scryer, pathfinder and dauntless? None for KDF (OP asked especially about the varanus!) or Rom. Again, the average player does not have subnuc wave and other stuff, because it is locked to three expensive (FED) ships. And regarding the T4 iconian skill, it is a proc as far as I remember. Subnuc itself can be used when needed.
"Sensor Scan? So what? Not when a TAC Captain just runs SO MANY TAC Captain offensive buffs. When they got APA3, Tactical Fleet running, watch the hell out. FOMM is just icing on the cake, the main target. If they game the system to have Go Down Fighting going on, watch out! With AHOD, it gets ridiculous."
So what? It is an AOE debuff! The tacs in your team will be happy about it! AHOD is again not available to everybody.
"Scattering Field? Inconsequential. Is it making your Exotic Damage Build hit that much harder? Is it making your Drain Build better? Is it making your CC build better? No. If I want resists, Polarize Hull, especially on a High Aux Science Build practically makes you immune already. Pop Hazard Emitters if you so wish to keep yourself in tip-top shape."
I already wrote before that this does not buff damage. You do not need to repeat that over and over. A team defensive ability sounds good to me. Combine that with the nice high shield resistance from science fleet to support your team. What's wrong about that? Somebody has to protect all the squishy escorts
"TAC Captains "defensive" abilities are simply this: Killing things before they destroy them. Also, depending on the ship, the player can implement their own set of defensive abilities. I refer again to my earlier example of a High Aux Power Build with Polarize Hull. Not to mention any healing/repair abilities that run off High Aux Power making them better. You do NOT need a SCI Captain for that."
You do not need a Tac captain for this, either.
"Again, SCI Captain skills do NOT boost Skillboxes that are relevant to the key Science Builds. Science Fleet does nothing important for these builds. SCI Captain abilities do NOT boost Particle Generator, Graviton Generator, Subspace Decompiler, Flow Capacitor Skillboxes. Sensor Scan, Science Fleet, you name it... does nothing to improve the main Science Builds out there. Astrophysicist Trait? That's not a SCI Captain exclusive deal."
Tac captain abilities do not boost particle generator, etc etc, either.
"But when we come down to damage with Exotic Builds, TAC Captain wins in a massive landslide."
Unfortunately yes, but that does not make a science captain useless (or an engineer) in a science vessel.
"I say this as a player with tons of toons between the 3 factions, with several characters in each Captain type. I've flown them all extensively in PVE and PVP in the past. As time progressed, all this TRIBBLE I just said? It becomes just much, much more apparent. "
Same here. Many toons, all careers, different ships and builds over a couple of years. Still prefer sci over eng over tac. Tac is just buff damage, buff damage, buff damage, kill. Way too boring for me.
"In Space PVE, where a lot of this game is based"
That is what you think. For me and many others ground is as important as space. And as I said in the former post, when considering the career, the ground play style matters more, because here the different careers differ strongly.
"SCI Captain has no role"
That is simply not true.
Also, getting back to the actual topic, the question was engineer or science captain. I do not see the tac in there
It's the truth VD. Look at what the game demands. Look at what the Captain Classes offer in capability.
Since this thread is on Captain Class to be used on a Science Vessel, what kind of things do Science Vessels need to perform well at for the various CC, Drain Boat, Exotic, Disable Builds out there? And once you get that, what exactly does Science Captain offer that makes them ideal for such builds?
Nothing. None of the Captain classes make them better for CC, Drain Boat, Disables. Not even Science Captain. But Exotic Damage/Particle Generator-based builds? It's down to Sci & Tac Captain. And between them, TAC just reigns supreme with the ridiculous damage buffs they can stack up.
Implementing Threat Generation? Irrelevant for TAC Captain. No build space needed for it. TAC Captain abilities to increase damage does not require threat.
Subnuc? Bosses, regular NPCs, it doesn't matter. The value of Subnuc is irrelevant in PVE. PVP, that's a different story altogether.
The T4 Iconian Rep Trait is a proc, yes. And everyone can get that if you want to play the Buff Strip Game.
The only place in space combat that Science Captain truly has a place is PVP. Actually, they're nightmares in PVP. They've always been. Sensor Scan and Subnuc is a nasty combo in PVP since STO launched, regardless of what kind of ship the SCI Captain is flying. A team with a couple SCI Captains is nasty business, one that I was always more wary of than facing a bunch of TACs.
@farseeridranel
That's the thing... You're slotting a precious Personal Trait Slot for Conservation of Energy Trait to amp up your damage. TAC Captain doesn't need to do that. TAC Captain's stuff are class abilities that will always be there. They do not have to forsake anything to have those big damage amplifiers. The entirety of TAC Captain is about damage increase. It does NOT have to give up anything for that.
On an Exotic Damage build, you need damage boosting or moar Particle Generator Skill. No Captain Class increases Particle Generator Skill. Hell, none of them increase the core skillboxes that are the center of most Science Builds out there. But damage boosting? TAC Captain has that in excessive spades.
Cooldowns? All Hands on Deck. Yes, this affects all captain classes and their class abilities. But that just means APA3, Tactical Fleet, FOMM, Tactical Initiative (TI is a bigger deal for the SCI Vessels that can slot APO1) with much better availability. Not to mention you aren't spamming GW, TBR, etc. either. So the minimized downtime of the TAC Captain abilities aren't a big factor.
And the OP asked ENG or SCI Captain. And I told him TAC Captain. Don't settle for less, which is what SCI & ENG Captains are. Simply put: TAC Captains kill things much faster. And it doesn't matter if they're flying Escorts, TAC Cruisers. Or even a Science Vessel.
It is not true and if you repeat it another ten times it won't get more true. It has it´s uses. Just do a HSE or a BDE. When the queen "vapes" the DPSers with feedback paule they will quickly ask for a subnuc.
"The T4 Iconian Rep Trait is a proc, yes. And everyone can get that if you want to play the Buff Strip Game."
That one is certainly useless regarding the buff stripping. Don't know, if the radiation damage is worth it, but it will cost one of four space rep trait slots.
"The only place in space combat that Science Captain truly has a place is PVP."
Oh yes, the STO universe should be populated by tac captains. All engineers and scienctist please don't leave the planet.
"Actually, they're nightmares in PVP. They've always been. Sensor Scan and Subnuc is a nasty combo in PVP since STO launched, regardless of what kind of ship the SCI Captain is flying. A team with a couple SCI Captains is nasty business, one that I was always more wary of than facing a bunch of TACs."
Yes, yes, but we are not talking PvP here, do we?
"@farseeridranel
That's the thing... You're slotting a precious Personal Trait Slot for Conservation of Energy Trait to amp up your damage. TAC Captain doesn't need to do that. TAC Captain's stuff are class abilities that will always be there. They do not have to forsake anything to have those big damage amplifiers. The entirety of TAC Captain is about damage increase. It does NOT have to give up anything for that."
Sorry, but that arguement is not as valid as you think. Look at the different species. Most, if not all, not even aliens, do have that many space traits by nature. This one trait slot is only precious, if you buy a couple of very expensive lock box traits and then have to decide what do slot. So, for the average player this slot is simply not precious.
"On an Exotic Damage build, you need damage boosting or moar Particle Generator Skill. No Captain Class increases Particle Generator Skill. Hell, none of them increase the core skillboxes that are the center of most Science Builds out there. But damage boosting? TAC Captain has that in excessive spades."
Well, you startet with the skills arguement. No class has a boost for this. And yes, everybody knows that tacs have abilities that boost damage. There is no need to repeat it over and over.
"Cooldowns? All Hands on Deck. "
Locked behind 3000 Zen, not available for everybody.
"And the OP asked ENG or SCI Captain. And I told him TAC Captain. Don't settle for less, which is what SCI & ENG Captains are. Simply put: TAC Captains kill things much faster. And it doesn't matter if they're flying Escorts, TAC Cruisers. Or even a Science Vessel"
It is not all about killing fast. I know the Antiproton-[Crtd]x100-people will disagree, but not all missions can be done by just high dps. And exotic damage is not the only kind of build on science vessels. There is drain and crowd control. Yes, I know there is no science captain specific boost for those either.
I still recommend to OP to consider both ground and space equally. Since he said he likes "orange" and it kinda fits with the gorn, I would say go engineer with phasers :cool:
Na, of course there are things sci captains can do better
-> shield resist for the whole team (science fleet). Can tacs provide that kind of defensive support? Same with scattering field. Science captains come with two support abilities. That is certainly useful.
-> sensor scan mass debuff. The whole team benefits from that. Except from tactical fleet, tac abilities only buff the tac captain him/herself. Again, the support for the team is done better by the science captain.
-> photonic fleet for distraction (don't know if it does reasonable damage). That one is special for sure, but a tac cannot have more "minions" than a sci.
See, might not be about damage, but science captains can do support better than tac captains.
To the second part of your post: Indeed, the fact that tac abilities buff exotic damage is quite silly. If it was + xy % to weapon damage instead of all damage, then we would not need to discuss. To even it out, sensor scan should only affect resists for exotic/kinetic damage and maybe drains or so.
And to the last part: If everyone plays tac, why should the devs even care about sci and eng anymore? And why is everybody ignoring ground? I said it before, on ground the different careers come with a different playstyle and science captains as well as engineering captains are certainly useful there. Ground is half of the game, so I see no point in saying that sci is not to be recommended. And not everybody follows the DPS race. For sure, an STF mission, e.g. ISA, requires a certain amount of DPS, but it can be done with both engineers and science captains. So what's the point? Is there a hidden requirement to do the mission in 3 minutes, so that only a tac captain can do it?
As you say, part of the problem is that tac captains obviously cry loudest as soon as some science stuff does damage, but why should the science captains just accept that? Maybe they need to cry loud too? And what about engineers? If science captains are "obsolete", are engineers then even more obsolete?
99% of PvE que are helped by massive damage output, .9% are helped by buff stripping boss, .1% need a tank...
I only had two toons, a fed and a klink ENG running in beam boats.
I came back and did the DR thing with a fed-rom Tactical (working a klink-rom sci too)
Now that I have been swapping and playing the Tac and the Eng I say that i prefer space battles on the Tactical (Veteran hybrid war-bird) over the Cruiser (t5u Excelsior). I was doing the DHC thing on the warbird, but the range damage fall-off was too great, went with a beam-scort build and never looked back.
But In the ground combat I prefer the Eng. I have him speced fabrication (when did they patch out the ability to place the multiple tired turrets for BOFFs anyway, i loved running with 4 eng placing 9 to 10 different turrets ;-) loved face rolling hard ground content) and I seem to have a higher serviceability -- and my "pets" do damage if i am forced to run for safety. That is not to say the tactical is a slouch, i pump out some nice damage on him as well -- he just seems squishy. Though i must admit i am liking the sci toon on the ground as well, but he is only in the low 20s as far as level.
Bear in mind on my opinion, i have TRIBBLE gear, and only one maxed out rep at this point.
In the end though, choose the career that's the most fun for you.