[Link Hyralian]

Hey guys, I'm looking for a heavy escort carrier build, and I have no idea what to do.
In reality, the build is for my newer friend who started playing STO 2 weeks ago, and he really loves it. I've clocked over 200 hours on it, but I have very little experience with escorts, especially special ones like the HEC.
He's looking for an aggressive playstyle, and doesn't give a fig about defensive properties (I told him that it matters, but he won't listen).
I ask this community because you all seem to be geniuses, and can trust your advice.

Thanks!

[Dark]

Well, I'm not much of a standard escort pilot either, but I'll note a dead ship does no DPS and it generally doesn't cost much (if any) offense to have a decent defense. In any case I can cover the basics, won't be the best but it should be a good base to build on.

The Heavy Escort Carrier has 4 fore weapons, 3 aft weapons, and a hanger. It has Cdr, Lt, and Ens Tac stations, a Lt Cdr Eng station, and a Lt Sci station. It has 4 tactical consoles, 3 engineering consoles, and 2 science consoles (3 if Fleet).

Weapon loadouts are fairly standard. Fore you'll want 3 Dual Heavy Cannons with either a torpedo launcher (usually for PvE/STFs) or a Dual Beam Bank (usually for PvP). Aft you'll want 2 turrets with a Kinetic Cutting Beam. This means you have a forward cone where all your weapons can hit, and the high mobility of an escort means you'll be able to keep targets in that killzone almost all the time.

With a torpedo launcher, you usually grab the Torpedo Spread ability to hit multiple targets (and it'll do extra damage against a single target). If you're using a special torpedo launcher like the Thermionic Torpedo Launcher, you'd want Torpedo High Yield instead. with a Dual Beam Bank, you would grab Beam Overload to essentially simulate a torpedo (but with no travel time - usually a PvP thing).

I recommend Antiproton or Disruptor weapons.

If you choose to use Antiproton weapons, you'll want a torpedo fore and an Omni-Directional Antiproton Beam Array in place of a turret aft, as well as the Obelisk Subspace Rift Warp Core for the boost to Antiproton damage. The reason you want a torpedo with this is because you want Beam Overload with a DBB, but the beam turret could be the one that fires the BO instead, wasting it.

Disruptor weapons are actually really nice - there's like a half-dozen variants that have different "chance on hit" effects, and both the Silent Enemy and Counter Command Ordnance sets give Disruptor damage boosts. Neither requires use of the Warp Core, so you can still use the nice [AMP] Fleet cores.

You may also consider the Protonic Arsenal weapons (torpedo and weapon) if you're using Antiprotons. The Grav torpedo is lovely with Torpedo Spread, and the 2-piece +Critical Chance when I added the experimental weapon gave me an increase of 1k DPS compared to just using 3 DHCs. Results may vary on this though, and if you're going Disruptors you may be using the Bio-Molecular Photon torpedo instead.

You have two Science abilities. Everybody carries Hazard Emitters 1, and you probably want either Transfer Shield Strength 2 or Science Team 2 as shield recovery abilities.

You have only three Engineering abilities, which is why I tend not to fly ships with station layouts like this. Someone else will need to suggest abilities, because they all seem important to me.

You have three Ens Tac abilities, two Lt Tac abilities, an two higher level ones. This makes having two Tactical Team 1s a no-brainer, since you have so many Ens slots anyway. That keeps perpetual uptime, which will greatly improve survivability. You likely want Attack Pattern Omega as your CDR ability, which (among other things) helps against Undine snot balls. You can stick in Torpedo Spread 1 or Beam Overload 1 for the third Ensign slot, and can put in two copies of Cannon Rapid Fire (PvP) or Cannon Scatter Volley (PvE) for the Lt slots. That remaining Lt CDR slot would be good for Attack Pattern Beta (since APO has a long cooldown anyway).

Also, since you're flying a carrier, Attack Pattern Beta (which debuffs the enemy) will increase the damage of your hangers. That's also why Disruptors (or Romulan Plasma) is nice - the proc will increase damage from your hangers (as well as from you and everybody else, of course).

Tactical consoles are easy, fill them out with Fleet tactical consoles for the appropriate energy type. Engineering consoles are usually where I put Universal Consoles, unless I want an RCS or Neutronium. If you want damage, then you'd put in the Fleet Embassy +Plasma science consoles. Even though you're not using Plasma weapons, it still adds the proc on all your energy weapons, which would obviously increase your damage.

Hope that helps, at least until the more experienced escort pilots can comment. The only escort I've spent much time in was the Jem'Hadar Escort Carrier, and the next closest were the Vesta and Chimera.

Edit: Forgot, hangers!

For STFs, you'll want Elite Scorpions. They deal the highest DPS in eSTFs, no contest. This is because they're basically little flying Heavy Plasma Torpedo launchers, and since most targets in eSTFs are immobile, high hull, and have no shields, the Scorps are in their element.

For most other content, you'll want Elite Swarmers if you can keep Aux power up enough to launch them regularly. The little suicide balls deal the highest DPS next to Elite Scorps in an STF, and will outdamage Scorps for most other content.

If you can't get either, than Elite Peregrines will have the next highest damage, but I can't imagine having access to Peregrines without access to Swarmers.

For Voth or Undine, who tend to have annoying AoEs that murder fighters, I recommend Delta Flyers. They're tough, and deal decent damage. Shield drain and transphasic torpedoes are nice against the Voth.

For PvP, you'll want Yellowstones because they'll troll and piss off other players, due to lots of control abilities. Decent against Voth or Undine, but their control abilities are a bit wasted.

[Daedalus]

I'm not sure I can add much value to another excellent and informative post from Dark, but here goes!

You have only three Engineering abilities, which is why I tend not to fly ships with station layouts like this. Someone else will need to suggest abilities, because they all seem important to me.

For DPS: ET1, EPTW2, DEM2. ET is a great hull heal, doesn't conflict with TT any more, can be used on teammates, and thankfully clears subsystem shutdowns for when the Tholians or Voth drop your weapons power for the upteenth time. EPTW2 will keep your weapons power capped for DPS, and DEM will give you greater shield penetration on each hit.

For Surivability: ET1, RSP1, EPTS3. ET for the same reasons as above, RSP is your shield panic button to let you get out of areas you shouldn't have gone and EPTS3 can act as your main shield buff since it increase regen, provides a heal, and increases dmg resistance while active. EPTS3 is captain trainable, so find a friend to train this for you if you're a Tac Captain.

[Link Hyralian]

Thanks for your help guys. It's really appreciated.

[Daedalus]

For most other content, you'll want Elite Swarmers if you can keep Aux power up enough to launch them regularly. The little suicide balls deal the highest DPS next to Elite Scorps in an STF, and will outdamage Scorps for most other content.

Hey Dark,

Can you equip elite swarmers on other ships? I've got advanced ones in my hangar, but they look to be obelisk bound only.



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