Cruisers (specifically science oddy) have pretty much out done science ships. Science ships need a complete overhaul.

1. Too many abilities tied together, its kinda depressing to use one ability and have the other half go into 15s cool down.

2. Deflector was for navigation... unlink these

3. Put shield consoles back on engineer side!

4. Need more abilities, and a better layout for science ships. You sacrifice healing/tank for damage because you are the weakest in fire power.

5. Only science ship really worth while anymore is recon... due to 3 tac consoles and better combat focused boff layout. Pure science is fairly useless in most cases, PvP perhaps is the exception.

6. For every task a science ship can do, a science cruiser can do better...

There is no real defined role for science ships anymore. Not one a cruiser cant do just as well or better.
To do anything you have to run high aux, this leaves you very low on weapons making you deal close to nothing damage wise there ( might as well run full torps). In elite STF's I have to compete with cruisers for control role, cruisers get eject warp plasma, gravity well, and repulsers just as science ships do. But with extra weapons slots, and a generally tankier ship with better power layouts...

I will probably be flamed, but seriously... where is the defined role of science ships anymore.

Not sure, but many would argue that the Retro Nebula is a very capable Sci-ship.

If you want to PvP, choose escort (or buy one of dreadnoughts - but escorts are still stronger). Science ships and cruisers are not for real combat. Science ships are for... well... science missions

Don't agree - they're for support and healing.

In theory - yes. But in practice 2 escorts are always stronger then escort + science ship (and especially cruiser + science ship). What is the reason of picking cruiser/science ship for PvP, while you will perform 3x better in escort? 5 Escorts have advantage over any ship composition (even composition including escorts) except another team of 5 Escorts...

I guess you have not read either of the threads below, they have good ship builds in them, I should know, I wrote them.

http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=266751 < Nebula

http://forums.startrekonline.com/sho...d.php?t=265786 < Intrepid

I will tell you now, that both ships will out DPS anything but the best set up Defiant-R, the Nebula will likely out tank nearly every cruiser, and both have more CC than nearly every build you can get in an Oddy.

And the best thing is, you can change the setups in both ships to output a large amount of healing.

Science dead? Not a chance!
Science not really played? Totally.

I have tried my hand at being a dedicated support / healer ship using the nebula refit and d'kyr and found that while it works well for team mates your dammage output sucks as you are relying on only 6 beam slots to deliver most of your dammage and a cruiser can deliver more heals and has 8 weapons to rely on.

While I gotta admit since the new respec system came into play it has caused problems for many Sci ship builds and it was a bit of a slap in the face having all the shield related consoles moved to science slots as well as the slight nerfing of Gravity Well it is not the end of days for sci ships.

I think that science really is the most misunderstood class in the game. The reason so many people struggle in Sci ships is because they are preoccupied with the fact that they only have 6 weaqpons slots and try to find ways to always up the dps. It is something that once you simply accept it and learn how to use the best combination of skills your easily on par with a cruiser for dammage output and if your not then perhaps your just not skilled out correctly.

I have done endless amounts of elite stf's as well as pvp in my LRSVR and am quite often the only one to go through a mission and not die, granted my broadsiding is not that of a cruiser but with the manuverability to turn fore pop out a gravity well, tykens rift & other nasty's as well as deploy ablative armor and fully heal without having to run it easily matches up in terms of dammage as I spend less time respawning. (if I can consistantly come in the top 3 for dmg in pvp it cant be that useless)

While the role of an escort is clear go in shoot and kick out a ton of dps and likewise a cruiser go in and stand your ground. Science is the hardest to get to grips with as it requires thought / strategy in terms of timing to get the best out of skills.

Granted what I have said is based on a LRSVR and not a dedicated healer though I always have a spare heal or 2 for team mates.

If you like just numbers in log parser - use escort. But they are squishy.
Cruisers... flying trucks... slow and with lots of HP. Maybe you like it, but not everebody like such sloooow ships.
Persionally i like science ships for:
1. Agile enough to use all possible tactical advandages from shots/abilities placed exactly where they are needed.
2. Have enough shield and related abilities to tank most things in eSTF-s in attack preset, ignore cube while killing probes in khitomer, surviving Donatra's torpedo spread without any hull damage except bleedthroug, etc...

And dps is not really a problem, at least you can really kill things, not only tank them.

While I'll agree SCI definitely needs another end-game level ship, I wouldn't say the Sci Oddy has really outdone anything.. No Cmdr. Sci BOFF slot and no target subs as well from what I understand. I do think there is too much love for cruisers lately though.

I also use an LRSVR on my Sci toon and absolutely love it, if you get the right BOFF layout and skill setup, that ship can do amazing things in STFs, especially as a blocker in infected/KA.

I don't think they're any squishier than a science ship. Their hull is stronger, and can load up on shield generators in their science slots since they're not going to have any science powers to speak of, which makes up for the bonus shields of the science ship.



I use the Recon, and agree with you since I can at least get 3 tac consoles going + have science consoles designed to drop energy levels of cubes, donatra, spheres, etc, making them less dangerous for the team (which is going to be a bigger and bigger issue now.) I keep weapon power high, and only juice Aux for Energy drain and sometimes Tyken's Rift. Even at power level 61 these science skills are beneficial.

Being an engineering captain lets me get a little riskier with my BO defensive skills so can still usually survive decently.


I'd need an upgrade to the recon style of play to consider buying a ship.