Hi folks,

as i am about to become Vice Admiral i am just a little bit worried which science ship to buy.

1. Vesta Science ? (as soon as it is available)
2. Oddy Science ?
3. Atrox Carrier ?

I am very thankfull for any advice

Thanks in advance.

A Defiant retrofit or even better the fleet defiant/Jem bug ship.

You can do a ton of dps and still have the science captain skills for survivability. Many say escorts work best for tac toons, which I'm not disagreeing with, and however if timing your SNB properly you can strip a target of their defensive buffs and blow them away even if they RSP.

Science captain is the most flexible career in the game. There are effective builds for a science in any ship you can think is of.

Vesta is my vote. If you like speed and maneuverability, it will hands down beat the Atrox and Oddy (even Chevron separated). If you want tankiness, though, I'd wait a bit before deciding, the hull seems a bit weak on the Vesta but that could be made up with the Vesta's consoles or the higher shield mod. The Oddy and Atrox are definitely tanky, with thick hull and good shield mods.

As for the 'Sci Scort' suggestion, if you want firepower and Sci abilities the Vesta will be the way to go. Up until the Vesta it was pretty much Sci BOff abilities or DPS, with little in-between. I've ended up having to fly an Armitage with my Sci to be able to contribute DPS, even though I like Sci BOff abilities, to be able to handle random group STFs. With the Vesta, a quick BOff seating change I can go from Sci ship to something resembling escort firepower to be able to handle what comes my way.

Oddy sci isn't even an option. Trust me on that, I tried it. Oddy can only be effectively used with ENG CMDR/LtCMDR setup, IMO. I've tried a lot of setups in it, and anything else makes it fragile, unable to defend itself, and weakens its offensive powers (that includes running it with Sci LtCMDR).

Remove it from your list, if sci skills are your thing.

Thank you all for your help so far.

I decided to buy an atrox carrier first and will watch the forums after the Vesta has been deployed and used in the field.

Can't go wrong with the Neb-R or Fleet Neb either. The Universal slot gives you some flexibility and the Commander SCI spot let's you maximize your SCI skills like Grav Well.

I freaking love gravity well! I am going to run the Vesta with GW3 with 5 particle generator consoles, combined with Isometric charge, vent theta and a tricobalt mine. Not sure about cannons yet, aux cannons might be great but I'll only have one of them because I won't buy the bundle, so I still have to run high wep power. I am thinking about going with beams, but I don't know...

You can still use the Intrepid class as my Sci VA does.

Don't get any of those! Start off getting a T4 Reconnaissance Sci Vessel. I finally got my SCI cap to lvl 50 and that ship is amazingly FUN. You can stack Grav Wells and Energy Drains 2 deep! And you get 3 Tac Boff power slots, truly an amazing setup. There's a fleet version too.


You know, The Vesta is getting released on Tuesday, why not wait for 2 days before plopping down the cash for an Atrox?

*Subliminal: Flyyyyy the Reconaisaaaaance Sci Veeeeessel*