I don't own the Vesta, yet, but I have been itching to try out an idea of using 4 Aux cannons on the Chimera as a sci-scort. You loose the Vesta's special consoles, but gain a ship that's equally flexible in boff configuration, more hull and an additional forward weapon slot.

The Aux cannons can only be used on the Vesta.

Oh, that explains some things, like why it didn't seem to do all that much on my Eng (with no Particle Gen skill) even with 4x phaser consoles slotted. The tooltip did scale up DPS as each Phaser console was slotted, but the DPS ended up something low like under 3K on the Eng. (Edit: under 2K without Phaser consoles, not with, as stated previously).

That sounds like a great thing to add to the Vesta, pending you aren't running but one or two of it's Universal consoles.

On that subject: I think slotting all of universal consoles, particularly if you want to slot a fourth like the Borg Module, is a bit much. You give up either tankiness (which is what the 2/3 of the consoles' abilities are for) and/or DPS (the other console and about half the reason I wanted a Vesta).

With my Eng, I've equipped it with:
Eng consoles: 2x Neutronium
Sci consoles: Fermion (the only Vesta console I'm using), Borg Module, Shield recharge console (it's been my experience that on Sci ships that this helps quite a bit more than on a cruiser or escort), and a shield capacity console
Tac consoles: 4x Phaser

With that setup it's pretty tanky, and even with few heals in BOffs (2x EpTS1, Aux2Sif1, and HE2) I rarely have to dip into my Eng captain abilities, all while still putting out enough damage to draw a fair bit of aggro with 3x Aux DHCS fore and 3x turrets aft.

Still playing with power levels, with everything in Aux with the remainder in Shields, the rear turrets starve slightly when doing CRF2/CSV2 but seem fine in normal fire on both my chars. On my Eng the turrets starve less than my Sci, but still starve out a bit even with maxed Warp Core Potential, a passive for it, and one Efficient BOff. Not a huge thing, but still will likely cut into your DPS when using cannon abilities. If you're not dealing the damage you're expecting even when factoring in only 3 forward cannons, this is what I'd look into, particularly if you're not running an Aventine.

I think I may like the Vesta more than my Armitage. Wow. I'm flying the engineer-ish version with all three special consoles. You lose some hull points and the runabout launch more slowly, but very good shields and enough science toys to be fun. I had to add a Mk XII RCS console to get the turn rate up where I wanted it. It's not a bad turn rate without the rcs, just not Armitage good.

EDIT: I took off all the factory weapons and am running tetryon beam arrays and quantum torpedoes. I don't PVP, so I don't know how this would do there.

One thing I've noticed that's odd, occasionally in the middle of a firefight, especially against the Breen, the words "OFFLINE" will flash over the ship for a few seconds. It doesn't look like any weapons or abilities are affected. Anyone know what this is?

The more I look at science ships, and their unique designs, the more the Vesta looks utterly boring, and unimaginative.
I'll stick with my science ships and new steamrunner.
The vesta is just an incredibly big monetary black-hole. Hell, the Odyssey science ship has more variety than this pathetic excuse for a ship.

I find I enjoy my vesta quite a bit.

I got it for my second toon, my first being your typical tac/escort combo. I wanted to play differently so I am for full support/heals on mine.

I could only get one, so I chose the "sci" version.

Now I heal really really well, especially if the person(s) I'm healing are doing the basics such as TT1, or simply redirecting shield power (After going heals, I noticed just how FEW players do this)

2x SIF generators,
5x shield emitters,

Takes me forever to kill anything, but I wasn't going for that.

BTW yes, this is for PvE.

And when I feel like solely killing things, I simply load up the tac/escort guy. That usually scratches that itch.

EDIT: I do notice however that EC generation is MUCH, MUCH, MUCH easier on a dps toon. this vesta almost never finishes in the top 3, whereas the dps toon nearly always finishes top 3. This has a big effect on the loot you get and ultimately how much EC you can generate. Especially now since Fleet Actions are really the only place to get loot anymore (unless I missed something)

It kinda like a Mirror universe sci ship.... Does more "evil" science than "good" science. Heh. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a torture tube in the bowels of the Vesta.

I run an engineering Vesta with a three piece Borg set, the three Vesta consoles, an Engineer in the universal LCDR slot and a three Neutronium Armor console set. Weapons are the Mark XII Ultrarares from the Starbase store, the Aux Cannons and a forward ultrarare Tricobalt launcher.


This thing just doesn't know how to die. A whole raft of creative ways to stave off death with enough crowd control and healing abilities to be a proper science boat. I'm actually shocked not to hear more crying about the introduction of the WoW Pally-bubble to STO.

Tanky, agile, and annoying. Aside from asthetics and my typical playstyle, it's a very effective ship.

LOL. Yeah, I've found that having two Tac Teams is the handiest thing on a heal boat to cast on other people. Sometimes it's just bad timing with that person having TT in cooldown at the wrong moment, but lots of times people don't really know about it and slot other things instead.

There's already two (one Fed, one KDF) ships with invincible (or nearly so) turtle modes, and both can do limited fire during it. So, a turtle mode without fire isn't so big a deal, particularly since you have to take at least a slight hit to either base tanking or base DPS with having to slot three of them. Effectively making you one slot less than the other two, which are 9 console (except the Fed's fleet refit) but need only one console for the turtle mode.

Despite what people say, basing their opinions mostly, if not only, on bare stats, Vesta is neither Mary Sue nor OP by any stretch of the imagination.

It's biggest asset is its flexibility, which may make people think the ship is capable of doing absolutely everything. And to the point it's true. It can provide decent dps, it can shield-tank, it can support, it can turn, and bascially every profession will be able to take something out of it.

But as they say, a jack of all trades is a master of none - and this very much applies to the Vesta. For every role this ship can perform there is some other ship that's gonna perform it better. There are science ships that are either more durable or more maneuverable. There are Cruisers that will perform a much better job at healing. Carriers and even the Escort Carrier have superior hangar bays, that launch fighters way faster, while standard escorts are still going to be primary choice for pure DPS.

I've been flying a Kar'Fi for quite some time now. If there's one OP ship available in the game through means other than lottery (*cough*bugship*cough*) it's the Kar'Fi. It's basically a maneuverable carrier with science focus and near escort-like damage potential. I honestly wanted to make the Vesta just like it - 3 dual (heavy) cannons up front, 3 turrets aft, rapids and scatters plus debufs and gravity well. And I'll tell you that - despite having nearly the same setup and equipment on my fed sci flying a tactical vesta with 4 phaser relays I still cannot deal the same amount of damage I usually do with the kdf sci on Kar'Fi. I don't know why is that, honestly, as the only major difference is the Plasmonic Leech console, another hangar and bio-neural torpedo I use in the 4th fore slot. And the only major downside on Kar'Fi's part is slower turn rate and lack of sensor analysis, really.

So as I've said, if anything Vesta's major asset is its versatility. You can perform multiple roles, but you won't perform well enough in any of them. In the end it's a great PvE ship, especially for people who would still like to focus on other roles aside from damage dealing, while not being completely useless and helpless during less demanding missions. Great ship in general, nicely balanced, lots of fun to play with.