I'm thinking of getting the Galaxy-X. Now, the STOWiki says it's "formidable" and "requires multiple ships working together to destroy it." But comparing it to the Separating Galaxy, which I have now, it seems that when you factor in the lack of an ensign engineer, it's actually worse off on the damage taking front. Am I missing something?

It's a cruiser with a little extra punch. So the G-X can tank very well and ,under the right conditions, deal some punishment.

It also has a very steep learning curve and you may find it frustrating at first. The Dreadnaught isn't for everyone for those few who fly it, wouldn't fly anything else.

It can double up on Tac Team 1, though, which neuters several enemy Tactical abilities, redirects shields automatically, and gives a bit of a boost to weapons power, with 66% uptime and 5-second windows of opportunity.

This. It is a beast.

When comparing it to a ship you first need to look at the assault Cruiser. This ship is a step up from that ship. In STFs you can treat the ship like an over sized slow escort to in PVP a traditional Assault Cruiser. If you played both a tac in escort and a eng in cruiser and have mastered the skill tree and Boff abilities then you might find delight in this mutant child of ship classes.

Yes, you are missing or misunderstanding something! So I will explain it to you in detail. So please, get a cup of Coffee or a Mountain Dew.

When you wish to tank or survive heavy sustained enemy fire in a cruiser, it is better to have an extra Tactical Ensign slot than it is to have an Ensign Engineering slot. The reason is that, Tactical Team is arguably more valuable to your survival, than any of the Engineering Ensign abilities; because it does two incredible proactive things to help you survive.

Tactical Team removes enemy tactical de-buffs such as the effects of Fire on my Mark, Attack Pattern Beta and Attack Patten Delta. Secondly, Tactical Team automatically re-distributes shield strength to shield facings receiving damage. This by its nature forces enemy Escorts and Assault Cruisers trying to breach a shield facing on your vessel very upset, as they now must to do more damage than you have shields over all of your shield facings in order to penetrate them.

Now, you should always run Emergency Power to Shields III with Tactical Team because you want to also reduce how much damage your shields are taking in order to have them stay up longer! EPTSIII will give you a flat 30% damage resistance on your shields. It also gives you a +36 power to shield bonus. If this brings you up to a 125 power level in shielding, you are then enjoying another 38% damage resistance on your shields to all energy damage types. Couple that with when you use a MACO shield, and you are receiving the maximum 75% hard cap to damage resistance on your shielding; and don’t forget, the enemy tactical de-buffs are not working on you while you have tactical team activate!!!

Now, sometimes the above combo is not enough, so I’d recommend having one copy of Reverse shield polarity I, for the occasional instance when you get sub-nuked by a Science Captain in an Escort and one copy of Transfer shield Strength I.

Use Transfer Shield Strength I when your overall shielding reaches about half. This Science skill will not heal your shields all at once, but over a small duration of time it applies a decent heal, coupled with EPTSIII, the increased regeneration from both is noticeable!!! Plus, it has the small added benefit of even more damage reduction on your shields.

Ok, so why does all this apply to the Dreadnaught Cruiser (Galaxy X)
In the Dreadnaught Cruiser, you can run two copies of Tactical Team; which allows you to use the ability every fifteen seconds with an average lapse in coverage of 5 seconds when using the Tactical Conn Officer that reduces the recharge time of this ability.

You then may use EPTSIII with two copies to keep its effect up at all times. So what do you use in the Ensign Engineering slots. I recommend Emergency Power to Weapons and Emergency power to Engines. Sometimes you need a little boost in weapon power output, especially if you get in position to use the Phaser Lance. Other times, you really need to escape a fight, so use EPTE with Evasive Maneuvers and you can really quickly put distance between yourself and your enemy.

Anyway, that is my two cents on the subject.

One thing you should note is the 'Requires multiple ships working together to destroy it' seems to refer to the NPC flagships that appear as part of the events, not to the flyable ship (the NPC ship uses shields and resistances unavailable to players as this would make player ships invincible in both PVP and PVE, and is solely used on that ship as it is intended to be engaged by multiple top-end starships and be able to fight them for an extended period of time rather than simply imploding immediately). Though it should be noted that the flyable ship could also require multiple ships to stop it if those ships were of significantly lower types ( A Klingon Bortasqu' or Guramba could probably stand toe-to-toe with it, while a Vor-Cha would need other ships working with it to take it down).

The Dreadnaught is, indeed, formidable. It has a much higher damage potential than any other cruiser (assuming it can employ the Lance), and until the Odyssey class was commissioned had the highest Hull Point total in Starfleet. However, that does not mean it is far better at taking damage than the Galaxy-R, just that it does a similar job in that department while -also- packing a punch that would look good on an escort. If you are only looking at the ship's ability to take damage, it stacks up about the same (though as others have posted, it goes about doing it differently). Probably an Odyssey would do better at just that one job, but the term 'formidable' is meant as a description of the entire ship, not just the one aspect.

Thanks everyone! Still debating whether or not to get it - it certainly sounds formidable but I have cruisers coming out of my ears right now...ultimately I'm looking for something that'll keep me alive for longer in the Ker'rat system and in STFs, so might look into the Intrepid retro...

Personally, If you haven't gotten the Galaxy-X yet, I'd wait till they add the Saucer Separation Console to it and then decide if that's something you really want to invest in.

I, myself have actually taken a break from my Cruiser for a little while and have been messing around in a Fleet Escort. Having a blast at no extra charge, but I'll be back my behemoth soon enough.