I have the MVAE. My loadout is one transphasic torpedo in the front, one quantum in the back, with a single Phaser turret [Borg], also in the back. The rest are Mk XI beams. I also have the proper tactical consoles to add more transphasic and phaser damage.

Using this loadout, I can destroy my buddy (Neither of us have PvP loads), in about one minute flat. He happens to have the big cruiser with the spinal laser.


For my BOFFs, I have two of them with beam overload, and high yield torpedo. The other abilities are torpedo spread, tac team, and Attack pattern Omega.

Yes it's because of the firing arc. Having cannons at the front, your limited to a 45 degree firing arc. Your aft beams (210°) couldn't fire in this forward arc and would contribute nothing to your firepower. In theory you could use fire at will to bring your aft beams to bear anyways on other targets, however that won't work out well: Just the beams don't have the firepower to do serious damage on their own, and in PvE you might draw a lot of fire by doing so - not wise for an escort.
Putting turrets at the back however will increase your forward fire power (due to the 360° arc of the turrets), also will the turret's firepower be increased by rapid fire and scatter volley - BO powers you will anyways have for your front cannons. Therefore turrets are in general the better solution.*


*Like always: Fly with a setup you are confident with. Beside elite stfs and premade PvP there is usual not much you could really screw up by flying whatever uncommon or even "inefficient" loadout you like.

Now, I do not play tactical all that often, so feel free to ask someone with more experience.

My main character is a science officer and for the first year, I mostly stuck him in cruisers. Then, I decided to make a second character, a Klingon tactical officer who I leveled up mostly in birds of prey.

It was a huge change. At first, I tried to do what I did with my science officer, give him heals and such to keep him alive, but I realized that was ultimately counterproductive. Your best bet is to play to the strength of your occupation and class of vessel.

Escorts are great at pumping out damage, but their shields and hull are made of paper. The way you win in an escort is to destroy the other guy before they destroy you, by buffing your attacks, not healing your shields and hull.

That is why I prefer turrets in the back and dual heavy cannons up front. In an escort, in order to win, you need to keep the enemy in your narrow firing arc up front. The turrets will plink away when they escape your arc and the dual heavy cannons will help ensure that you do not miss too much damage if they get out of your arc. Abilities like tactical team are better than shield heals because they keep your forward shield strong.

The only point of beams in the back is to him them hard while you are running, which I suppose is a good choice in weapons if you plan to be running a lot. My advice though is that if you have to run, get out of their weapon range quick and cloak (if you are in a BOP or Defiant) and then hit them again when you have some shields.

Now, when you are fighting B'ger, the beams in the back actually seem to work pretty well because the thing is so big that you can fire your cannons and your beams at the same time. Also, you might keep a powerful weapon in the back, like a tri-cobolt or bio-neural torpedo to turn tail and fire when their shields are down. That might work for you.

But do not take my advice. Try different configurations yourself and see which ones work better. Ask around. Pick a play style, because different weapons configurations have different advantages and disadvantages.

For instance, I have done three dual beams on the Prometheus with beams in back. It works and it has some advantages over cannons (mainly that you can attack from a distance and use beam abilities like fire at will and beam overload). If you have trouble keeping people in your arc, that might work well for you, but overall I prefer three DHC up front with one torpedo launcher and three turrets in the rear.

PvE: 3x DHCs + 1 Quantum, 3x Turrets. Get Beta 3 (since almost no NPCs use TacTeam), CSV 2, and Torp Spread 2.

PvP: 3x DHCs + 1 DBB, 3x Turrets. RF 3 + BO 2/3

Err... what is "Get Beta 3", "CSV 2"?

And what is "DBB", "RF 3", and "BO 2/3"?

Thank you in advance!

Attack pattern beta 3
Cannon: Scatter Volley 2
Dual Beam bank
Rapid Fire 3 (Cannon: Rapid Fire 3, sometimes abbreviated CRF 3)
Beam Overload 2 or 3

Youre welcome.