The "holy Trinity" seems like a good enough answer for the holiday season.

There's no definitions like that in real lore and you're generalizing.

The Defiant was described in canon and an Escort. All that means is that it was the only Fed ship that focused almost entirely on battle at the time. It had insane firepower (we don't know what it had more than a Sovereign and it probably didn't). It was not the fastest ship or near it. It's maximum warp was pretty low. It had very maneuverable and fast thrusters and impulse engines though.

As for the Prometheus. It's not really an Escort outside of STO. It's a bit more combat centric but has a ton of other stuff too. If I had to use the non-canon definitions of "Escort, Science and Cruiser" ships I'd say it would be closer to an Escort Cruiser.


But yeah, I think Escorts in STO could be represented better. Specifically the fact that there's no real importance of maneuverability (which was KEY for the Defiant) aside from shield facings. You can't maneuver to dodge attacks or anything. Every ship has basically the same chance to evade damage.



But on the other side Cruisers aren't represented at 100%. I mean what Galaxy-class couldn't pull off the top level Beam Overload? Realistically the biggest and best Cruisers were the TOP ships in lore and couldn't be matched by anything that you called a "Science ship" or "Escort". There simply weren't any combat capable ships that could match the flagship cruisers in Starfleet. However, us being all Cruisers as lore would suggest (for balance) would be BORING and Cryptic did a good thing here.

actually i watched the episode with promethus just last night it was discribed as "for deep space tactical assinments" which fits the bill of an escort. And though escorts main advantage is that it can equip cannons that isnt what classifies them as escorts. A small manuverable ship with heavier then average armerments for its size i would think comes closest. Aka the akira, defiant, steamrunner. Promethus fits right in that.

Yeah, I know...thats why I said I already feel like I have it in my escort because from the hella crazy turn rate and amped up speed, I can hit three shield facing (as if I were firing from three seperate locations) all in one pass. See? Make sense the second time?

Can you imagine how horrible the game would be if things were balanced the way you described? Science ships as useless pieces of junk and Escorts as indestructible warmachines.....this is a game, and as such needs to be balanced to provide any fun gameplay

I do believe sir/mam, that there's you're problem. Try running high power engines. Dont treat it like any slow cruiser, use it for hit and run attacks.

I've been nailed many times in my cruiser by a very well captained fleet escort multiple times because of the fact that he could go in and out of my fire range and decide when to strike. In a 1on1 engagement it would have been even, but in the team-vs-team PvP setup that is common in STO, he's like the vulture waiting for the prey to weaken before he swoops down to stab with his talons and feast...

I already collect VA/RA emblems with my main for that ship

Which, for the record, is agonizingly STUPID both in TV and in a videogame.

This isn't a setting or game with heavily directional defenses. Shoot a ship from three sides and its the same amount of damage being spread more thinly and becomes easier to manage for the target, not harder.

...And what is the point of HIDING weapons? You either have the engine power to fire them, or you don't. You don't magically gain firepower from spliting up. They could have put all those weapons were they were exposed on the hull in the first place and the ship would have been MORE dangerous by the standards of the setting (and in-game).

It was a lame gimic in show and it's about as functional in the game. Its cool sounding, but then so are the Power Rangers until you stop and think about it for 1 second.

a good player in an escort can be beyond deadly. they are not the weakest ships in the hands of someone who knows how to use it.

i will agree there should be more variants of escorts now but they are not useless. far from it.