It may be that there were additional factors in play, like buffs and debuffs (which are esp prevailant in stfs). I would recommend you test both ships in a sterile environment (1v1 match against a target dummy ship), and that should put the damage output question to rest.

As for the damage soak ability? Again, use a sterile environment and have someone attack you, and you just defend yourself (without shooting back, by defend, I mean use buffs and debuffs etc). Whichever of your ships takes longer to die, provided your shooter does the same thing, will prove that test.

As for shield tanking, if your ships have the same shield mod, of course they will be able to shield tank the same. But the thing with cruisers is that we hull tank. And THAT is where you WILL notice a difference between the Cmdr and RA versions.

just had an interesting infected elite run with 5 cruisers. A Galaxy X (tac captain), all beam array. an assault cruiser (science captain), a tac oddy (engi captain), Starcruiser (engi captain) and myself in an oddy starcruiser (engi)

guess what...the team blew through that infected with 2 min left at the end. And i have to say we were actually only 4 since the starcruiser came in with multiple red injuries and was dead 70% of the time.

so much for cruiser and/or beam array firepower.

PS: i would like to think it was because of me, but it wasn't. That galaxy X captain plowed through those spheres with his beams like an escort. I had the honor of tanking, but failed 2 times due to 1 invis torpedo and one phone call.

I hate the day teh Borg realized the power of Telemarketing.

Damn, I sooo hoped this thing would finally die.
Where was I when I left? Ahhh, right:

Okay, 3x Damage Control Engineer ... so, you're down to a single BFI Shield Distribution DOff (you ARE running a Warp Core Engineer with dual EPtX cycling, do you?). You're again trading in survivability. Acceptable on the Tor'Kaht if build as a tank instead of building it as a Raptor - not a good move on an Escort, you'd be back to glass cannon. And no: trading a 1min full shield recharge for a 3min20sec one is not enough. Especially since you'd trade your Aux2SIF right along with it, making you die from bleedthrough.
Not to mention that the 3x DCE version does not have a 100% uptime on either EPtX - max is a 92.5% chance for a cooldown proc with three purple ones. 7.5% chance of running naked for 15sec.


The Ody is Tier 5. Well, actually Tier 5.5, as are all the 10-console ships.
The Excelsior it Tier 5.
There are no Tier 6 ships yet, any ship of RA AND VA level is considered T5, and they come with the same total BOff slots, console slots and relative hull/shields.
Fleet ships, lockbox ships and the Ody get about a 10% boost on shields and hull plus an additional console - but that's not a full tier.
Besides, the Ody as used for examples is the 50$ version, since the Saucer Seperation console costs another 25$.

Actually ... can I take you up on this?
You bring the free T5 Escort, I bring the free T5 Cruiser (well, actually the mirror skin, but that shouldn't be a problem).
Last time I had the opportunity to duel an Escort, I was still using Mk X greens, and it took a PvP-build Defiant (alpha-striking from cloak, of course) usually about 5 minutes to bring me down. Two uses of all my Engi cooldowns, and then some.
While that ship still needs some work, I'd like to see how it does now - I'm pretty sure though it would be a LOT closer than you think.

Oh: I wouldn't mind either if you sent someone else and just watched, I'd really like to see the results, either way. And I can use the practice. No P2W consoles, just the free stuff. Anytime after the RSP gimp is undone next week.
We can do an ESTF or two afterwards, I'd like to see how you're doing with your cruiser.
Agreed?

I'd be game to watch. Will give you guys a 2nd person view of your fight.

Sterile test results just in:

Excel - R
DPH 500 - 800, Crit 1000-1500

Tank 101k over 5 mins
Heal 200k

Excel
DPH 500 - 900, Crit 100-1500

Tank 46907 over 5 mins
Heal 156k

All outgoing damage was to an Oddy with no shelds or buffs of any kind all incoming damage was to the configs shown here so I think the RA Excelsior could do with a slight DPS buff

I dunno, that extra 100 on the upper end of your damage shows the extra tac consoles. As for the damage taken, that's showing your extra engi conoles/BOff abilities.

it's not, the first set of figures is from the RA version

Odd. There should be an increase of at least 50-100 damage. mk XI blue gives a 24.4% damage increase, and after you factor in the dimishing returns, at least a 10% bonus... very odd indeed... maybe your cmdr version just got luckier with the damage rolls...

How about we use the thread you made for this?
Just an idea, you know, not derailing this monster here.
Questions you might want to answer: range the same with both tests? Power settings?