I'm sure this has been asked before, but either the search function sucks, or I do. I apologize.

I just got promoted to Vice Admiral (yay me). I'm flying the fleet escort, and looking at the purchasable ships, I'm just wondering if they are really better. I don't really pvp yet, so the cloak is of little use, but is the multi-attack mode worth paying the money for?

Both the c-store ships are more skewed towards science rather than engineering., which I use for ETPS. Is this because it's better to have hazard emitters and transfer shield strength for survival?

I haven't done any end-game yet, so I'm a complete newb when it comes to it. I've read the STF escort post though, to get some pointers.

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome.

Fleet escort is an excellent ship. You are not really missing anything unless you absolutely want to use a Gravity Well on your escort for example.

I have a fleet escort myself and love it they are awesome ships only thing i prefer the looks of is the tactical refit but thats just me as i love the defiant look for what is meant to be a fast sleek ship.

Fleet Escort is a lovely ship. I personally see it replaced entirely by the Jem'Hadar Attack Ship, but meh.

Fleet Escort! Thumbs up

The VA ships aren't really better, just different. MVAM console is a nice gimmick and the cloak is cool for PvP. Both create additional options only. There is a drawback though, it's really hard to get a good looking Fleet Escort, the only thing that needs improvement IMHO.

Dear Hakaishin, if you have a spare Jem'Hadar ship, I would gladly take it off your hands! I tried to get one with the winter packages, but to no avail.

Thanks for all the answers, everyone!

Reiterating what others have said, the Fleet Escort is a marvelous ship for running STF's in. If you change to one of the other ships dont hope to be more effective DPS wise, but do it to have a different playstyle even if some missions take longer.

For me I tend to run Fleet Escort for STF's and either a D'kyr or Nebula refit for general PVE. For my cloaking ship fix I just hop onto a KDF toon.

Hakaishin is correct about the Jem'Hadar ship, IF you have one. Otherwise the fleet escort is an amazing little ship.

I had the Defiant since before the Season 5 FU changes.

I was quite happy when they announced the that it was going to change from a "normal" ship to a +1 Ship.

With the Extra Eng Console slot I how have the best of the Fleet Escort in my Defiant.

Basically What I am saying is that unless you really really really really want the Defiant, you shouldn get it, but sitck with the Fleet escort.

You should NEVER have to buy a ship from the C-Store... NEVER.

People above me pretty much already sum up all things about fleet escort, i just want to add that not just for escort. The entire ship lineup we have right now, you won't see a huge different in between f2p ship or c-store ship. Unlike other f2p game where cash player has significant advantage over free player, so far STO has it balance out quite nicely. (But who knows what will happen in the future, let's just pray that they can keep it this way). There are some advantages for certain c-store ship over their free counterpart that's for sure, but it won't be anywhere close to free ship getting totally facepwn by c-store ship. I would say in general free ship are at least 85-90% as good as c-store ship, for some it is even equavilent.