Just curious what more learned Captains then I think about the Charal as a viable escort for Engineering Captains. The Boff and console layout appear to favor both a Tactical and Engineer path. So then, what say you?

Because PvE is 95% dps, escorts in general are viable for all captain types.

With regards to the new Adorian Escort variants, I think Engineering Captains are in a unique position to comfortably wield the Kumari (tac) variant because Rotate Shield Frequency and Miracle Worker can make up for the lack of heals in its BOFF seating.

That said, the Charal (eng) and Kyzon (sci) variants are also excellent choices (especially if you're willing to tankscort).

actually, i would take the tac version for an engineer, and already have taken the charal version for my tac for more survivability.

Definitely not an Engineer ship it only has a Lt Bo slot in order for a ship to be even considered to be of interest to an Engineer it needs to have at least Lt Com Bo slot.

She is a tactical ship through and through although there are other variants they all built for tactical.

The Sci and Eng variants of the andorian escort are more than fine for Engineers.
Engineers give it a bit more of that survivability it NEEDS, while still being able to give a whole lot of damage output.

When I see a tact. captain using the tactical version of the andorian escort in an elite STF. I point and laugh. I've already seen 3 of that distinctive setup explode already when they tried to kill elite cubes.

You will see that until they learn the new ship and how to fly it. Just like any time they create something new. You have to learn how to use it. I was on a different MMO. They came out with a new class/type of character to play. They all sucked and no one wanted them in their group/party. Until they finally learned how to use them effectively. After that they was welcomed.

Its a learning curve.

I'm not sure on Eng based. It might be possible if you have the right BOFF set up for it. My KDF has several so its possible he could make use of the ship. Since I have tactical Boffs with beam, cannon, and torpedo set ups.

However since its Fed. I hadn't equipped my Fed with a full load of Boffs like my KDF. I think it could be possible. But for me, I'm going to use my Tactical Captain on it. Since I'm sticking to Escorts type ships on that one. Where my Eng is more cruiser based.

That death rate might also have something to do with the ship currently having a lower shield modifier than it should and nerfed heals, to be fair.

On topic, I, too, think that an Engineering Captain is in a unique position to take advantage of the Kumari (Tactical) variant in a way that other Captain types can't, since the Captain him/herself can make up for the ship's almost total lack of heals.

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I really wish there was a way I could test this ship on tribble. I think I'll hold off for now and wait and see what happens with bug fixes and buffs/nerfs down the road.

Anyway, for now I'm quite happy in my fleet support cruiser retrofit.

The Charal is what I'm flying. It's fun. Once they fix the bugs with the shields and healing powers, the ship should be A-OK.