T6 Tactical Escort or the T6 Heavy Escort Carrier??

blastercat · October 2016

Hello all you experienced captains,

With the ship sale finally here I have to decide. Here's my story...

You all helped me before and I ended up getting the T5 Heavy Escort Carrier, and upgrading it to T5-U. It's a pretty ship. And you know, I spent a little more getting the Thunderchild(T3?) for whatever that was worth.
Maybe its my playstyle but for all that I like about the Carrier, when I saved up enough to buy the fleet upgrade module, I balked. (Sold the upgrade module back to the exchange for a small capital gain.) The ship as of now has all plasma romulan dual heavy cannons, a ddb, and a plasma torpedo of some sort. In back I put a plasma omni, and mines, plasma as well, and tractor beam mines. Cause my playstyle, sinful or not, plays out well in my mind.
I'm an Engineer but early in the game, I wasn't able to get results from a cruiser. Enemy PVE would close distance on me and then turn another shield facing to my beam arcs. Mines were a good counter to that maneuver. Stuck with it as I tried Escorts in my 30's and 40's level ship.
What seems successful is slowing my escort as I enter the shoot envelope, the enemy immediately responds by closing the distance. I open up with my cannons already on target, CRF, then a good HYT and when they close to within 1km, not much left of their shields so my plasma and sinister tractor mine layer finish them off, I've laid about 2 or 3 sets in the time it takes for them to close. I've been at near dead stop the entire engagement.

So, firstly the carrier thing isn't working out. Those fighters all die per engagement against a battleship. How fail they are? Now that I've saved up enough zen for a 3 pack of cross faction ships, I've decided not to get the 3 pack of T6 heavy escort carriers. Those fragile fighters don't live up to my expectations, dying and all, I've never seen any 3 star fighters by the ending of any battle ever. (Why have 4 stars?)

I will be buying the T6 cross faction command ships, the Klingon destroyer and the Romulan warbird look fantastic. Oh but the galaxy X. I probably won't even board her.

So my fed character luckily enough has enough zen to buy her a lone fed ship for 3000zen. I'm reluctant to buy the T6 Tactical Escort because of its platypus nose. (Really, looks are important.) But the T6 starship trait is so tempting. The trait is Withering Barrage - 4 seconds of extended cannon volley. Really suited to my tactical style as explained above.

blastercat · October 2016

My question is given my lack of enthusiasm for both the T6 Carrier, my above information and that ugly nose on the Valiant, what might you do? Play esclusively on my Romulan and Klingon?

dumas13 · October 2016

I won't say your setup or playstyle is bad, but it sounds like you're not enjoying the escort carrier as you play it right now. I would suggest experimenting with different setups of gear and boff powers on the T5U to see if anything works better (all cannon forward or all DBBs is a simple change, maybe try the Romulan weapon set since you're into plasma). If you can't get the T5 escort carrier to work for you, don't make yourself buy the T6. The console is ok at best, though popping all three escort carrier consoles at once is hilarious, and the trait is very specialized.

What pets are you using? I favour Delta Fliers, which are fairly durable and can take down enemy shields with Tachyon Beam. You can also try Danube Runabouts for tractor beams to hold them down while you get the cannons going. And remember: There'll always be another sale, no need to buy a ship right now if nothing feels quite right.

As for the Valiant nose, the guy at the far left of the ESD shipyard pit is an expert at rhinoplasty and other cosmetic procedures. I always spend ten or fifteen minutes with him after acquiring a new ship.

tyler002 · October 2016

Have you got your captains skill points set up to benefit fighters? Several of the options you get as you spend points boosts their survivability.

Mine reach full rank fairly often.

orion0029 · October 2016

I own the T6 Escort carrier bundle and I can honestly say they are fine ships. Yeah hangar pets usually suck, so you probably won't be depending on them for much more than harassing targets. Deltas or Runabouts do have some durability to them, however, they give up some firepower for it.

As for looks I'm an avid fan of the Akira/Thunderchild hybrid looks, specifically I use the Thunderchild costume with the pylons/struts of the Akira. Looks downright hot! (I don't like the stubby Thunderchild pylons/struts lol)

As for performance the Alita is comperable to a T5-U Armitage, but it has a Pilot/Eng seat on it so you can use some spec abilities on it. Lock Trajectory is a nice option here if you use cannons, but can get tricky to properly time when/how to use it.

I don't find Pilot abilities all that useful considering that you'd have to give up your precious few Eng slots to use them.

I've never been a fan of the Defiant line of ships in STO, it sacrifices too much durability for firepower for my taste. So I can't offer any experience as to its performance. Sorry.

I'm sure you'll be quite happy with the Command battlecruisers, I have the cross faction bundle of those as well and I use them on my KDF/Rom almost exclusively! Cryptic did a fantastic job making the Romulan Command Warbirds, they are truly beautiful ships! As for KDF/Fed, they aren't quite as epic for looks but, like the Romulan versions, they do perform quite well in almost any role.

The Tac and Sci variants are the most useful depending on your playstyle, and they have a couple of the best Starship Traits I've ever used!

All Hands On Deck (Tac command cruiser) reduces Sci boff and Captain abilitiy cooldowns when you use a Tac boff ability.

And Improved Tachyon Beam (Sci command cruiser) adds a 10km AoE shield heal centered on your Tachyon beam target, extremely useful for healing shields on yourself, allies, and even fighters too!

As for your playstyle, the best piece of advice I can offer is: Don't use the ole "park 'n' shoot" strategy with an Escort, even if you find it works early in the game it will quickly loose effectiveness later when enemies start to hit hard. Escorts excel in manuverability and avoiding fire so keeping your throttle up is key to survival.

When it comes to carriers using Threatening Stance with Beam: Fire at Will is a good way to keep the heat off your fighters while they do their thing, but attracting attention to yourself isn't the best idea in an escort, great in a cruiser like those Command cruisers though, since they can take a hit better!

I've never been much for using mines, however if you can time them right you can blast away a shield face with your cannons then drop a load of mines right in your target's face and finish them off without ever slowing down! Takes some practice and skill to do effectively though...

Hope this helps.

(Also hope I've answered the correct question... lol)

mustrumridcully0 · October 2016

blastercat#3245 wrote: »

So my fed character luckily enough has enough zen to buy her a lone fed ship for 3000zen. I'm reluctant to buy the T6 Tactical Escort because of its platypus nose. (Really, looks are important.) But the T6 starship trait is so tempting. The trait is Withering Barrage - 4 seconds of extended cannon volley. Really suited to my tactical style as explained above.

The Tactical Escort has many variants. You can even get rid of that nose.

And it's "The Sisko"'s ship.

The Wiki doesn't list the Vigilant/Gallant refits, but it shows all other available options (note, the Sao Paulo is a seperate purchcase, the Tier 4 Refit):
http://sto.gamepedia.com/Fleet_Tactical_Escort_(T6)

My customization:

baudl · October 2016

tactical escort...the one ship I'd want to fly, but see no reason to spend money on when I already got the pilot escorts.

blastercat · October 2016

Thanks for all the replies. I've got my cross faction command ships, and I have to use the fed one at least as long as it takes to get the star trait. Maybe I might like it, being it my fed is an engineer. It's that 3rd nacelle that detracts from the Galaxy X look. At least for me. Maybe after using it, I can rationalize the appearance in some hot roddy type way.

But I've seen my current set up with the escort carrier wasn't going to keep up with the Jones's. I would enter a 5 man pve que, fire my torpedo, and the target would get popped with my torp still on the way. No it wasnt my Rapid Cannon Fire. It appeared to be a beam boat, and he appeared to be able to do that massive damage IMMEDIATELY after dropping out of Full Impulse.

I'll do a respec now with the new dreadnought, try taking advantage of the abundance of engineering consoles. I'll go to the max on EPS flow and remove mines from the mix. I'll probably keep all the flight deck hangar skills. The Galaxy X has shuttles that I need to try out. They don't seem like something to rely on though as its in the tact team tool tips, tact team nulls shuttles. Everybody has a Boff Tact Team running.

So thanks for the guidance. As you know it will take time to get enough ec, fleet credits, and upgrade crits before I ever become THAT ship that pops enemy vessels like popping balloons with a pin.

zerokillcf2011 · October 2016

I fly ONLY the Gal-X (T5 and now T6 version) on all 9 of my fed alts, 4 of which are engineers (except if I'm trying to get a ship trait from new purchase). Its a cruiser, so in your case: Fly beam arrays only, no cannons. (DBB are decent damage, but limited arc). Without maxed out gear and Rep equipment which it sounds like you aren't using, go 1 torp fore, 1 torp aft, and 6 beam arrays. Correct cruiser attack in Gal-x: Approach, hit Beam overload, Tact Team, Torp High yield, Fire Lance, Fire all weapons, turn away to pass, Beam Fire At Will, fire all weapons, pass......they should be dead.

Also for fed ships with only one hanger (so Gal-x and escort carrier) the Advanced Danube Runabouts for 23k dilithium in dil store are hard to beat. They take a few punches, have crazy hull, and tractor beams.

More info from you though: do you have the Gal-X at T5, or is it the T6 version? Did you get any other of the "galaxy" line? Andromeda, Exploration Cruiser, etc? (I ask bc their are several set bonuses available for those girls)

blastercat · October 2016

Hello,
I got the one T6 that comes in the cross faction bundle. I plan on putting a reputation space set on it, but I have to read up on which one benefits the most on a cruiser. Less than 24 hours ago I got my Iconian rep to Tier 5. The rest will follow soon. Lots of reading to follow. LoL 9 reps to consider choosing from.
Advanced Runabouts, sounds cool. I invested in point defense consoles solely to counter those annoying little buggers. As a real life navy man I have a favorite shipboard weapon, CIWS. That's that little white R2D2 weapon with a 6 barrel Gatling gun with integrated radar.
Next ship sale probably in the end of November. I've got plenty of time to get my Klingon and Romulan up from their current levels of 14 and 15. Just want my fed with her new T6 grinding out dil to the max while doing so.
So thanks again. Have a fascinating day!

nixie50 · October 2016

honestly, the engi i fly does VERY well in the tactical command battlecruiser, and pretty well in the sci Odyssey. before you jump at a T6, why don't you post up your t5 cruiser and carscort builds? I bet you can get several build changes to try before you buy a T6 you may or may not like.

dumas13 · October 2016

blastercat#3245 wrote: »

But I've seen my current set up with the escort carrier wasn't going to keep up with the Jones's. I would enter a 5 man pve que, fire my torpedo, and the target would get popped with my torp still on the way. No it wasnt my Rapid Cannon Fire. It appeared to be a beam boat, and he appeared to be able to do that massive damage IMMEDIATELY after dropping out of Full Impulse.

I'll do a respec now with the new dreadnought, try taking advantage of the abundance of engineering consoles. I'll go to the max on EPS flow and remove mines from the mix. I'll probably keep all the flight deck hangar skills. The Galaxy X has shuttles that I need to try out. They don't seem like something to rely on though as its in the tact team tool tips, tact team nulls shuttles. Everybody has a Boff Tact Team running.

At a guess, that cruiser had very high EPS and/or activated Emergency Power to Weapons just after dropping out of Full Impulse. That gives a significant boost to weapons damage in addition to the power bonus, and he may have been running a few things to improve the ability.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say "tac team nulls shuttles," but I think you've confused a couple things. I run Tac Team on (almost) all my toons because shield redistribution is very handy whether you're trying to broadside in a cruiser or strafe in an escort. It does not affect any hanger pets you have active (though I suppose you could try to cast it on one); it certainly doesn't make them vanish if that's what you mean by "nullify." I've never noticed that it had much of an effect on enemy fighters, though they're not terribly common in PvE.

I think you're misreading one thing it does do: it counters the Boarding Party ability, which usually takes the form of shuttles that can disable systems and increase boff power cooldowns if they manage to reach an enemy ship. It doesn't destroy these shuttles while they're flying, it just clears the debuff they apply. It also clears "tactical debuffs," which the wiki says are things like Fire on my Mark and Attack Patter Beta.

T6 Tactical Escort or the T6 Heavy Escort Carrier??

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