Hello
I just made vice admiral. I want to buy a new ship that can use dual cannons. My toon is a science officer. I have been using science vessels so far. I'll be looking at various guides.
Thanks

If you want to use cannons, you'll mostly be looking at escorts. While there's a few exceptions, such as the Dreadnought Cruiser that can use cannons, the ships most capable with them tend to be escorts.

However, if you want to stick with a Science Vessel, the Vesta comes with Aux Cannons that it can use, and would be something to look into if you're open to getting a ship from the C-Store.

Why the emphasis on dual cannons, just for the DPS? What are you flying now? Currently the only Federation science-oriented ships with dual cannons are the MVAE and the Vesta.

Maybe pick up a Mirror Universe Escort off the Exchange to try escort piloting out before dropping $25? Wait a week or two for the prices to cool off, then you can pick up either the Mirror Advanced Escort (which is more science oriented) or the Mirror Patrol Escort (which is tougher and will be useful if you decide to buy the MVAE).

Thanks for responding. I am using a recon science vessel. I wanted the dual cannons for the DPS and I like how they look in rapid fire. I'm new at this so i don't know very much. I figured a science officer flew a science vessel. I am open to other ideas.
Thanks again

Thanks for responding.

They can fly whatever they want. I'm a science captain and I probably spent 80% of my time in an escort, 15% of the time in one of my science vessels, and I've been using my Assault Cruiser for a certain PVE map the other 5% of the time.

However, escorts (and cruisers) play a lot differently from science vessels, and some people don't like, prefer, or have the reaction time to fly escorts. While science vessels tend to do less damage from their weapons and more from their abilities (in general, some builds put more focus on weapons - my long range science vessel retrofit is a shield stripping torpedo boat), escorts tend to focus on abilities to help their weapons do more damage, like rapid fire.

If you think an escort is for you, the Advanced Escort (T5 ship from the shipyard), Mirror Universe Advanced Escort (reward from the Dominion lockbox, can be found on the exchange), and Multi Vector Assault Escort (C-Store) are the most science focused ones, if you think you might miss some of your science abilities.

The Vesta (C-Store) that was mentioned earlier also comes with Aux Dual Cannons and can equip regular dual cannons and dual heavy cannons, and is the only science vessel able to do so. More information it can be found here: http://sto.perfectworld.com/news/?p=738141

Thanks that helps.

Speeking as a science captain I would say that cannon builds, wether single cannons on traditional science ships, or dual on the vesta or in an escort are very good choices for us.

Beam boats suck a lot of weapons power, which we are not as capable of supplying as an enginear. Nor can we supplement our damage as a tacticle captain can.

Cannons and turrets are simply more energy efficent then beams, and if we temperarily take a little power out of weapons to boost one of our science abilities we wont see such a sharp DPS drop off by using them.

Subnuclionic beam gives us science captains a grate advantage over enginears and tacticle captains when we fly an escort. Yes a tacticle captain can stack a lot more damage buffs, but we can take those away from him, allowing us to out dps him. Yes an enginear can boost his power levels and rotate his shield frequencie, but once again, subnuke takes that advantage away. With the DPS of an escort we can exploit that vonerability and take out our opposition before they get their buffs back.

So any escort is a fine choice for a science captain in PVP. For PVE it realy is a crime not to go with the MVAE however. With this ship we can pull blobs of enemies together into a gravity well for our sensor scan aoe debuff and scatter volley.

If you would prefer a few more science abilities the vesta realy is the pick of the pile. It is easy mode for science as aux powerd cannons remove the need to use emergency power to auxilery, or to manualy change your power levels to maximize your abilities.

Otherwise the fleet nova can make for a good alpha strike ship. Not so usefull in PVE, but mask energy signiture, beam overload 3, torpedo high yeild 2, tacyon beam 3 and energy syphon 3 can make for a nasty supprise in PVP.

thanks
that is very helpful

Vesta, Excelsior, Ambassador are all cruisers that use cannons, albeit the Vesta does equip dual cannons whilst the latter two only single cannons.

The Vesta comes with a set of dual cannons with 405 DPS. Unload weapon slot, discharge, reclaim, and repeat until you have three (3) of them. Three pack is nice too.

Excelsior (esp Fleet version) and Ambassador comes pretty well equipped. The first has a tiny better turn rate over the other. Having tried both, difference is minimal in turn rate imo. It allows four cannons up front. Works really well on both and I hold my own in Elite STF's even against the Borg probes and cubes.