Right now I am approaching L40 and have to think about what my next ship will be. I am a Tac captain and will be going with an escort... the question is which one?

It mostly comes down to what Bridge officer slot I want. Right now my Science Boff has Polarize Hull 1 and Hazard Emitters 2, while my Engineering Boff has Increase power to Shields 1 and Reverse Shield Polarity 2. It really boils down to which level 1 Boff power I want, and it most likely will be either Engineering Team or Science Team. So which one of those do you think a ship should not be without?

I am leaning towards Science Team because there seem to be more weird science debuffs that you need to protect yourself from than Engineering debuffs. But Engineering Team gives me a way to repair hull which I don't otherwise have.

If I was just picking based on ship performance I'd probably take the fleet Escort because you get more crew and engineering consoles seem to be more generally useful than science consoles.

What do those with experience think?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Peet

Welcome (soon) to the New Tier,

It all boils down to your play style ... along with matching BOFFs and consoles.

The Fleet Escort is a great ship.
I would suggest leaning toward the Engineering ... for greater repair repair skills and power transfers.

Go FE, take 2xEPtS1 + RSP/ET2, with HE1 and ST2, and you wont be sorry

So you don't bother with Polarize Hull? What is your strategy for dealing with tractor beams? Does Science Team help with those?

Peet

Polarize hull is good, but Attack Pattern Omega is the best true that double true... breaks tractor locks plus in PVP can increase your turn rate like a champ. In STF's an well timed use of APO can determine whether or not you need to respawn. APO 1 is a LT CMD Tac Bof Slot, APO 2 & 3 are used by CMD Tac Bofs (APO 3 can be trained by tac captains)

Also, I'm a fleet escort guy myself due to the fact that I have leaned on a lot of engineering skills with my Tac Captain and my Bofs, plus with its extra crew and engineering console it can take way more damage than arguably ever other end game escort.

WITH THAT SAID, if you are big into science skills then you might want to consider the Advanced Escort as it does have two sci Bof slots plus an additional sci console.

Another advantage to the Advanced Escort is that if at some point you were thinking of buying the VA Multi-Vector Escort from the c-store then you wouldn't have to do a lot of respec'ing and rebuilding if/when you got it.

o' re: science team - IMO rock ensign bof tac slots with tactical team... it has a damage boost that helps with escorts plus it instantly directs shield strength from your ship shields to which ever shield coming under attack.. Since tac team and sci team share a cool down, sci team is rendered useless with this set up.

Thanks for the advice guys. Fleet Cruiser it is.

Peet

I use the Fleet Escort as well. It's a great ship, just make sure your Boffs have at least 1 rank of Science Team Engineering Team and Emergency Power to Shields. Then configure your Tac Boffs to what you have equipped, whether you use it as a beam boat, or a Heavy Gunship.

Attack Pattern Omega can counter Tractor Beams..

MVAMs/Advanced Escorts can now have a 54% increase in shields thanks to the stacking Field Generators since it has 3 science console slots.

I can't see why anyone would fly any other escort now. It has all the DPS of an escort, the shield strength of a science ship, and the defense bonus of an escort due to its speed and manueverability.