Ok... I have been playing around with my Escort for some time now. I generally find that High Yield Torps definitely are the "You die now!" button for me. I also have Torpedo Spread though. I understand that it is supposed to be AoE and it can deal some decent damage some times (especially if it glitches and sends out a couple hundred torps) but in general it seems like it is a waste of a slot. Does Torpedo spread usually fail to impress? Is it really worth using?

Rapid Fire is touted by many as the main Ability of choice for the cannon loving Escort but I have it and Scatter Volley. Rapid Fire gives a damage decrease but a number of shots fired increase. Scatter Volley increases rate of fire insanely but splatters your shots all over the place. Which is really better? I have noticed if I am close to a bigger ship where every shot from SV is slamming into the enemy it is utterly devastating and seems to make RF look tame. Of course it is far better to use SV vs. Groups but I am wondering if it might even be best Vs. Single Targets if you are good at aiming your ship. Thoughts?

Scatter volley USED to do insane damage, especially CSV 3. However, some time around season 2, it got nerfed. The damage bonus is now less than that of the same rank of Rapid fire. It doesn't matter if you are only firing at a single target, the damage is now the same (at least it's supposed to be). Also, there used to be a bug where your weapon power drain with scatter volley depended on how many targets were in your arc, but I believe that was fixed not too long ago as well.

Torpedo Spread consistently fails to impress. It's AOE is too small, it doesn't hit many targets anywa.

Cannon Scatter Volley grants lower single target damage than Cannon Rapid Fire. In PvP it is usually best to focus the best possible damage on a single target than trying to spread damage around (even if the net damage output is more). In PvE, the enemies don't heal and harden themselves enough, and your only problem with CSV is that the typical NPC group consists of 1 enemy ship, unless you get one of those 3-Frigate groups.

CSV was bugged for a while and gave more damage than CRF, even against a single target, now it only gives overall more damage if you hit at least 2 targets (and best is at 3 targets, anything more and the damage is just spread around, but you don't gain anymore.)

SV works wonder vs the kdf in pvp. A carrier can lose there pets within just a few seconds, especially if a sci has a grav well centered on the carrier
It can also be used to fake out heal boats, using your back up patterns to get them to throw out there main heals, then launch your main strike use rapid fire at your intended target.

SV is also nice fighting Romulans. Romulan BoPs have heavy torpedoes, Mogais have cloaking tractor mines, and Warbirds fire volleys of heavy torpedoes. Scatter volley basically negates them all.

Torpedo volley is kind of lousy. Doesn't do heavy damage, and like all kinetic damage is heavily reduced by shields. When it bugs out and fires extra torpedoes (I thought they'd fixed that? I haven't seen it with high yield in months), it's a visual effect issue. The animation plays more than once, but the ability still fires normally.

Rapid Fire DPS bonus: 30/40/50% (per rank)
Scatter Volley DPS bonus: 15/20/25% (per rank)

While Rapid Fire definitely has a higher bonus, Scatter Volley can hit up to 3 targets at once, giving it the potential to do far more damage. Beta + Scatter Volley is quite deadly and can force a healer to use some of their heals on themselves while you pound away at your main target. Depending on if you're in the MVAE, you can use Gravity Well + Beta + Scatter Volley to really shred people up.

Scatter Volley can also be kinda tricky to get the absolute max damage out of; You want to be relatively far from your target so that your 45' Cannon arc actually expands with the distance, letting you hit as many people as possible. But at the same time, you had to be no more than 5KM away since Cannon damage drops off significantly at higher ranges (likewise, they do more damage the closer in you are).

As far as Torpedo Spread, stay away from it. It does dismal damage and your target has usually already moved away from where the AoE will hit (determined upon their location when you fire the torps). That being said, Torp Spread (particularly 3) with Plasma torpedoes looks amazing. And while you're in an Escort, for a Sci, Torp Spread with Chronitons + Gravity Well = some major slowing on enemies.

CSV 3 back then was bugged, and was mistakenly using a +70% damage modifier.

Thanks all, that answers my questions quite thoroughly.