[athousandsons40k]

Hello all,

I am about to hit level 50 as an engineer captain for my first character in this game. I am still getting the hang of things and have been browsing forums for various tips and pointers. I have read quite frequently that there is no "best" ship and it all depends on ones playstyle. I am looking for a ship that will allow me to launch little fighters (preferably a ship with a hangar, I just like the idea of launching little minions) and something to have fun with in PvE. My log in times vary frequently and sometimes I have to walk away from the keyboard at a moments notice so I expect to be playing solo quite often (so survivability and attack power would be great). I have read up on the sto gamepedia about the different ships that fit this role and was curious if the engineer would be a good class to invest in such a hangar ship or if I should start over before my investment in time gets too deep.

Thanks for the help and tips in advance.

[Three of Seven]

If you're not wanting to spend a lot of EC on getting a lockbox ship, these would be my suggestions.

Fleet Advanced Heavy Cruiser Retrofit - There is no hanger on this, but remains one of my favourite cruiser, I like the look of the Excelsior and it has always seemed to work well with an Aux2Bat beam build. Here's an example build on STOAcademy: http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skil...fatigable_3207

Fleet Heavy Escort Carrier - This ship can launch pets, it only has 1 hanger since it's not a full carrier. Can't find an Engineering build I like for this, but it can work with cannons/turrets, you would possibly also want the fleet tactical consoles.

If you want raw damage, then I would suggest levelling up a tactical Romulan captain.

But while you are unsure and/or have low funds, I'd say experiment with some of the ships you already have access to and build up your Energy Credits, Dilithium and Fleet Credits (maybe some Lobi too), also keep an eye what people are saying

[Solace]

Hey Athousandsons40K

I was wondering what faction is your character?

If you are looking for a ship with a hanger, I would recommend one of the following ships:

• Excelsior Class (Cannot Launch Fighters)
• Fleet Dreadnought Cruiser (Galaxy X)
• Thunderchild Class
• Scimitar (Romulan)
• Obilesk Carrier
• Jem'Hadar Carrier

Bear in mind that most of these ships will be expensive, although i don't have much experience with ships that have hangars,
maybe someone else can help with some suggestions?

Sorry if this wasn't much help

[Gillion]

There are a few ships Fed side that you can choose from but all of them are really pricey. One of them, like Three of Seven said, is the Heavy Escort Carrier. It has one hanger bay, but since its an escort it leans more towards the high attack power side. If you kit it out properly it can be pretty tough.

Another option would be one of the ships from the Multi-Mission Vesta line. They're all Sci ships that have one hanger slot. They dont have much hull strength but they have a lot of shield strength. They also come with special cannons that run off Aux power instead of weapon power which is very nice in a Sci ship.

Last we have the recently updated Galaxy Dreadnought Cruiser. Its a very though ship that also has one hanger slot. Since its a cruiser its kinda slow but if you get good equipment you can deal some serious damage with it. It also comes with a cloak and a special weapon called a Spinal Phaser Lance which is basically a giant Phaser that does serious damage to your target, and anything between it and you.

[Wesstan]

Since you are an engineer i would recommend the obelisk carrier and the fleet dreadnaught cruiser since both run hangars and are heavily engineer focused. Ofcourse i would choose the dread because the obelisk is plain ugly and also like to keep it "canon"-ships (if theres something like that in this game)

[athousandsons40k]

Thanks for the great replies. I like the idea of taking different ships out for a spin to see what fits.

As a sidenote I am a terribly shallow person, I can understand how the dreadnought cruiser would be a perfect ship, however, I think its 3 engine design is not too attractive (I apologize to those of you who love her look).

The obelisk seems like an engineer oriented carrier ship with its 5 engi consoles so thank you for that suggestion (might need to get over its looks).

I like to dream as well, is it realistic for an engineer to fly something like the "Jem'Hadar Dreadnought Carrier"?

I notice no one really mentioned changing characters from an engineer to something different to use a carrier based ship. While I don't mind putting in the time to work for one of those ships I also don't mind supporting this game with some purchases. My only worry is that if I did do some purchases I would have character remorse with an engineer and wish I had a different class. Is that worry justified or is this one of those situations where your class does not play a tremendous role?

----edited for grammar

[Three of Seven]

Class can play a huge role, on ground, Engineers dominate but in space, it's very much a Tactical captain who is going to deal the most damage. In space and Engineer still has high survivability and you can still make them do some decent damage but will always be over shadowed in space for damage.

With a Romulan tactical, you have the benefit of Romulan bridge officers, which will boost your crits, allowing for a greater damage output

[CallMeTheRev]

I like to dream as well, is it realistic for an engineer to fly something like the "Jem'Hadar Dreadnought Carrier"?

I have characters of all three fed careers, my main character is an engineer and his main ship is the JHDC. Here's the link to my build... http://www.stoacademy.com/tools/skil...ld=revjhdc20_0

I would say this first and foremost, unless you have the Bug Ship (JHAS) the JHDC isn't really worth the investment, I'd maybe go with the JHEC if you want a Jem Carrier. The bug ships are probably the best pets in-game bar none, especially the elite version.

That being said, the JHDC has 4 tac and 4 eng console slots, so I think it's well balanced. The BOFF layout makes it shift a little more towards TAC, but it does offer a LT UNI, which you can use for another ENG if you like.

My hull is just under 63,000 on this build with my skills, shields are just under 10,000. It's very survivable in most situations, I wouldn't recommend it for PvP, but it doesn't die first usually. In CSE, I can sit at the Kang and not move and defend it without issue, I let the bug ships handle the defense.

It may not be ideal, but it's certainly usable.