Just get max shields and science team BO skill.

In my engineering console slot.

Provides resists to phasers, disruptors, plasma, and I believe tetryon, fyi

Before they can start giving out free armor boosts to escorts, i think they need to first work out the unfairness of giving fleet action loot out onlly to the top dpsers, aka the escorts

Right now the absolute only reason to play cruiser or science is so that in pvp they can live longer and kind of pull the weight of the team, sometimes its works sometimes it doesnt

If you give escorts more surviability now there will be absolute no reason to play cruiser period, and that would be pretty sad

TBH Escorts and Cruisers are fine as they are now they just need a better system to distribute loot.

Okay for the sake of realism (I know its a game) but:

Armor is on the outside of the hull, so It would not be able to be repaired without either a spacedock facitilty, or some peep hanging on the outside on the hull. And I don;t care what anyone says, the red shirts or your average knuckle dragger are not that dumb to be hanging on the ship's exterior during a battle.

/agree... Seems like escort pilots want to tank like cruisers and do the dps of escorts. Why not just delete all other classes and make escorts the only one. Since the loot system is designed to reward them anyway.

Sorry to say this to cruiser captains but... you are idiots.
In my cruiser I can easily out dps an escort in fleet actions and get top score. Perhaps sit down and review what type of weapons and modules you got on your ships?

I my self are using plasma weapons all over with and tactical mod to boost plasma weapons atm.
3x plasma beams, 1xplasma torp.
before that i used 3x disruptor beams and 1x photon torp.
And a further note. I'm engineering officer. I got only emergency power to weapons 1 that helps my dps. everything else is for survival.

sorry for going off topic

on topic... the armour exists in an engineering slot

Tactical always yields more dmg than engineer, if you know how to play well. The dmg bonus/crit bonus/crit magniture of alpha strike, combined with fire on my mark debuff, is deadly combination.

I have no problems taking out stuff 3 levels above me (either 1 big ship or 3 little ones) Emergency power to shields, Science Team and Hazard projectors all add up to a shed load of survivability and lets you unload on a target longer and come away alive.

Except minor things like attack pattern alpha and fire on my mark. Good luck in fleet actions end game when you dont get a group slot cuz your a escort with subpar dps.