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A year (or so) later, do you recommend pilot raptors?
djf021
Member Posts: 1,382 Arc User
I've had the Mat'ha since shortly after it's launch. It's an awesome ship, but I find myself getting a little bored.
I'm not worried about the lower hull points.
Are the pilot maneuvers worth the loss of OSS II?
I would get the bundle so I could mix and match and for Admiralty.
Do you recommend them today?
I'm not worried about the lower hull points.
Are the pilot maneuvers worth the loss of OSS II?
I would get the bundle so I could mix and match and for Admiralty.
Do you recommend them today?
Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there... you can make a difference.
-Captain James T. Kirk
Post edited by djf021 on
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Support 90 degree arc limitation on BFaW! Save our ships from looking like flying disco balls of dumb!
The rom pilot ship is being very good to me, so i recommend it.
If i were to get another kdf ship i would prolly get the pilot since it it was nearly my last purchase.
Star Trek Battles member. Want to roll with a good group of people regardless of fleets and not have to worry about DPS while doing STFs? Come join the channel and join in the fun!
http://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1145998/star-trek-battles-channel-got-canon/p1
Survival wasn't an issue except for occasional crits since the combat map becomes your hunting ground (sadly against helpless punching bag NPCs...but that's another topic altogether). The only way to fly it is with mouse control on turns, popping pilot abilities and other speed boosters on keybinds in ways that they stack after lots of testing to tune it for consistent speed while still keeping some damage output.
Wouldn't trade that ship for anything since it can do things nothing else can, not even the exclusive Corvette with its superior stats. That's why I built it, cause they took it away from us with zero real advanced notice after a year of waiting for it. Maybe they'll make a T6 someday, till then, expect the pilot warbird in STFs for 2016 Risa eager to fly alongside Vettes and other fast combat ships.
I haven't got around to using the Raptor much, but it's a solid flying gun with the bit of intel seating. They're really two very different classes of ships, with the gameplay favoring the Raptor since the NPCs are so crippled by design that a pilot ship doesn't get its space-dogfights role against similarly fast enemies that threaten to cripple a fleet of ships not equipped to deal with such attack vectors.
But the ships arre great - for a few reasons:
1. it's a pack ship, ie, you don't Need a fleet ship (it is a fleet ship) - I have 17 toons so I do like that
2. the Pilot maneuevers are fun - and using them gives you a short immunity - if timed correctly, you can survive the Crystal blast without taking damage
3. it's what an escort shoud be - maneuverable and deals a lot of damage
I never use any piloting skill - and yes, if they had Intel power instead, I'd use that. But they look great and are heaps of fun. Currently 3 of my toons use it as their Primary ship (and I have about 90% of all T6 ships unlocked and a few lockbox ships as well)
KDF: 2 tacs, 2 engs, 3 scis
KDF Roms: 3 tacs, 1 eng, 1 scis
FED: 2 tacs, 1 eng, 2 scis
TOS: 1 tac
all on T5 rep (up to temporal)
all have mastered Intel tree (and some more specs Points)
highest DPS: 60.982
I actually DO use the pilot skills, but the cool thing is you don't HAVE to because of the way Boffs are trained now. I find them to be useful at times, and since variety is the spice of life, changing things up once in a while is good for the soul.
To answer your question: YES! I recommend the pilot ships!
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I'd say the gameplay and nerfed NPCs with near-vacant AI is what's rubbish.
A properly balanced game that had diverse and unpredictable end-game content, maybe even PvP/E hybrid maps, and every ship would perform its role exceptionally and either complement or clash with any given teammate strategy & composition.
Abilities and ships are very well thought-out, and all perform exceptionally in their roles, which translate into noticeable performance from the slightest difference in stats.
compare reroute reserves to weapon III and surgical strikes III - even without override safteties there's quite a difference. Plus it's a turn on/off skill which means you cannot put it in a Loop, you have to micro manage.
I do admit, that I am not an expert on piloting skills - I trained all skills, tried them out, didn't find any that I liked, dropped them.
They may be a viable choise on a BOP, if you use a science or Engineering / Pilot hybrid, but I wouldn't sacrifice any tactical Slot.
I think for a escort that should do damage, piloting skills aren't great. And you already have superior mobility, so why waste an ability Slot for that?
KDF: 2 tacs, 2 engs, 3 scis
KDF Roms: 3 tacs, 1 eng, 1 scis
FED: 2 tacs, 1 eng, 2 scis
TOS: 1 tac
all on T5 rep (up to temporal)
all have mastered Intel tree (and some more specs Points)
highest DPS: 60.982
This reddit post and the linked one here also compares rrtw with other abilities. I too have tried all the pilot abilities, and wasn't impressed by rrtw. I'm not sure how it was intended to work, but my guess is giving the ability to attack with full subsystem power to engines and maybe EPTE without sacrificing firing power.
As for mobility, if the gameplay provided a need for it and made it rewarding, then pilot abilities would not disappoint. But it's really about damage output, or more precisely, taking as many enemies down as fast as possible, which is why I said the gameplay favors the Raptor.
The built in Pilot Abilities are what make them the best Escorts in the game.
Remember, during Pilot Maneuvers, you're completely immune to any damage. This lasts 2-3 seconds and you can do it every 10 seconds or so. If you're constantly spamming it, it's essentially about 33% damage immunity. Of course, you probably shouldn't do that (just fire it off for no reason) but the Pilot Maneuvers are great when wading through a large group of baddies, or you see an incoming torpedo volley. They're like Rock and Roll only you can attack while doing it and you can use them over and over again.
Pilot Maneuvers are pretty great. I highly suggest you put a priority on playing with them and learning how to take full advantage of them. They're an absolute game changer and by far and away the best reason to use the Pilot ships.
- The Pilot Ships are well designed as Escort-types.
- They come stock T6-11, considered Fleet-equivalent.
- Between the three variants you can pretty much accomplish any sensible Escort-type setup you like.
- The Pilot Maneuvers are fun, good for keeping yourself and you enemy where you want them, and the immunity can make up for the lower hull if used properly. Time it wrong, or get hit with stop-motion lag, and... not so helpful.
- The Pilot Specialization BOff Abilities are, by and large, not worth using. The Pilot BOff Ability set is probably the least desirable of the Primary Specializations for everyday use, and the Cmdr set is specifically underpowered for that Rank (much like high-rank Eng). This is especially true because you're trading Tac seating to do so, which also comments on the value of Tac compared to the other BOff Ability sets. Cooldowns (Reciprocity, "Krenimism", Tactical Readiness Skill, Tactical Initiative, etc.) are also a consideration when trading Tac for Pilot.
I purchased the Mega Bundle awhile back, and I would recommend them today. They are fun to fly, the low hitpoints + Pilot Maneuvers keeps you a bit more engaged than when using a Drifting DPS Monster, the console set can be decent if you don't have immediate access to the good stuff (assuming you mount cannons), and all of them sport 5 Tac consoles with a 5 fore/2 aft payload. The discount for getting the full Mega Bundle is pretty noticable, though if you're paring down you can do well with just the Science version (Tac Cmdr/Tac Lt, Eng Lt/Eng Lt, Sci Lt Cmdr is a very capable layout); Admiralty and Space Barbie work best with more options, though.But as Escorts, these are among the best. The 5/2 layout alone is already superb, and on top you get those get-out-of-jail maneuvers that are fun to use and good looking.
But... when it comes to the Pilot Raptors - I never quite liked their looks. So if you also evaluate a ship based on Space Barbie qualities, you might need to think about it a bit longer.
As someone long ago said, if you can't stay alive in a pilot ship, you're clearly doing something wrong.
Something worth mentioning: there was/is a bug where the double-tap locks on thursters deselects itself randomly during a mission. The double-tap function to me is a terrible idea as it goes off when I don't want it to, or vice versa, and I'd rather have it on a separate keybind option altogether. Hopefully with the UI revamp the lock bug will go away and we can continue just using the UI manually with the mouse which works fine.
It's an ensign level attack pattern. So if you're running an attack pattern rotation to get bonuses off of the pattern's use (like temporary hit points) it has some limited consideration in that you can use that as an ensign level pattern and then spend higher rank seats on other abilities. So in a couple of instances it might have value, those instances being you're in a ship that has too many ensign tactical seats, you want the temp HP buff, so you run a rotation on your attack patterns and you'd rather put other Tac abilities in the seats where you'd slot your other pattern.
Not something you run into all the time, obviously. But it's an option.
The pilott ships are very nice to move around with. It can be very useful. As KDF you also have a cloak..
So yea... Pilot ships are nice. They didn't make anything Obsolete though.
But! this is my opinion and people may not share it.