Hi all.

As the title says I am a VA tac officer looking for some suggestions. Since I began I have mainly stuck to cruiser class ships, with the occasional foray into escort-dom.

I am currently flying, and have been for a long time, you guessed it the Excelsior.

What I am asking is which of the escorts are better, survivability seems to be a big problem on them and I was wondering if people could advise on which of the stock ones are good for what and if I was to buy Prom or Def which would be better?

I play alot of PvP (not a hardcore PvP-er) and from experience the escorts are the first to go boom usually. I have decided I want to make use of all my offence capabilities.

Even on my Klink char I have not used the BoP, only the cruisers, so looking for advice on which escort would be a good build for me to work on for my Fed.

I am mainly looking for that super knock out alpha attack punch that I see people do with escorts.... (although I am interested to know what tact skills apart from tac team, people use for survivability?)

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

For defense, EPtS is a must have or TSS for the resists it gives your shields. For a heal go with AUXtSIF, again for the resists. PH will give a hull resist and will break tractor beams which slow you down.

For offence Attack patterns Beta or Delta (and/or omeaga). The key to a good alpha strike is having all your attack buffs up when you are at the effective range for your weapons and the the enemy has no or few defenses available.
It takes practice and timing.

As to the escorts I don't know that much about the FED side as a player(yet). And the team supporting the escort is what makes them shine or fail.
But facing them in my Raptor I have found that the Defiant retro a tough opponent in the hands of a good pilot.

for me learning to pilot an escort took forever. i battled throttle control and timing a lot.

MVAE (ltcm sci slot) and Fleet (1 ens 1 lt engie slots) are both more "survivable" than the defiant.

but running a high cap shield and 2 copies of tactical team gets you the best out of shielding, the best way i know how to stay alive in an escort...pop an aux batt...then TSS2 and TT1.

but being in an escort is hitting hard and fast and getting the heck outa dodge most of the time, unless you fly with an engie in a star cruiser or something of the sort.

my escort is now VERY "seat of your pants" if you will... 1 shield hardening power and no hull heal. but i fly with some good healers.

-see you on the battlefield.

I use the defiant retrofit in PvP for my Tac toon so most of my survivability options are somewhat limited without good team support. Otherwise if your lone wolfing it, strategy is whats going to keep you in one piece. Hit and run, bob and weave. I use x2 tac team one, EPtS, RSP, attack pattern Omega 2 and Delta 1. Science team 1 gives me a decent shield boost and Hazard emitters do a good job of geating scratches off my hull. Shield batteries come in handy too :-D

Thanks for the tips and suggestions all.

I tried pvp with my escort yesterday and got pummelled in the first game. I see what you mean about escorts needing a good team to go with them. I had 3 cruisers and a sci and none of them were working together so essentially it was everyone for themself.

Also being used to usually winning pvp its a bit disheartening to keep getting blown up again and again.

But hey ho, that hows we learn. I need to find ways to increase my survivability.....

If your lone wolfing it in PvP cloak up and pick your fights. Run like hell if you need to or stay and play and take your chances. Most good escort pilots flying on their own will hit hard with a good alpha strike and then run like hell, and cloak up for another pass or hunt down targets of opportunity. Its what makes flying the Def-R so much fun :-D

That sounds like more fun. The only problem is I dont have the Def-R yet so not cloak on my escort. In my infiite wisdom, wya back long ago when I reached VA i chose the Gal-R and have never even used it since the EXC-R came out lol.


I wish I could return my galaxy R to Starfleet under the sale of goods act and ask them for a Def-R instead. :p (As far as I am aware its still under warranty)

Whats the matter of Galaxy-R ? its nice ship good power management, good customization, semi-escort posibility...

They void the warranty once you separate the saucer

Not enough bite in a Gal-R for me