Best Personal Ship?

[Maniac]

So what would you say is currently the best personal ship to fly?
I think the last time i used a dragon because of the 6 weapons and 2 turrets but was not that great.

[powergfx]

Most consider the Cobra to be the best balanced combination of turrets (Argon Flaks), front weapons, shields (go for Terran shields), speed (some prefer Split mk4 drives for insane non-travel speeds) and high amount of marines. Handled correctly you are able to bring down every large ship and even capturing the L ones.

[The Big Brzezinski]

A Cobra is probably the most versatile, or a Falx loaded with speed mods. Hardly any ship can do it all well, though, even before accounting for individual taste.

[RaideR]

Cobra, even It's basically handed yo you already kitted out early in the game
Got hangar for 2 small, pack punch on its own, fast and sturdy

[Daemonjax]

For S ship, very early on (when travel speed matters), in order of "BEST":
1) Moreya*
2) Takoba (Segaris Pioneers)
3) Lux (Vigor Syndicate)
4) Discoverer Vanguard (Argon)

* There's a mission for this to get one which can be completed early on (the ship is named Geometric Owl), but I really hate doing that mission so I just don't bother.

There's also the Mako you can get early on which is technically good, but I really hate flying that thing, and I also somewhat dislike that mission chain altogether -- I used to always go for the Mako first, but it's more time efficient to just sell everything at the start and get a Disco V. And I hate how it handles.

Once you can teleport 5 sectors (which can very easily be done within the first few hours of a game start), travel speed doesn't matter (it's still good, but it's just not so important). You're not going to have one personal ship, but many -- all spread out and going different places (while you do other things) for you to teleport to once they get there (missions). Or they're primarily parked at specific locations for you to hop into for combat purposes (gate defense, anti-pirate, etc).

By the time you can afford to fully kit out an M ship, you should already be able to teleport 5 sectors. Frigates with good travel speed (Gorgon V or Cobra) are nice to have because you can use them to bus around docked heavy fighters that have split engines.

[Troll]

I like the Hydra. Pretty tanky and powerful with those railguns.
For an S ship, the new Xperimental Shuttle is a beast, and the Geometric Owl has a good speed and is the boarding prep specialist due to its equipment.

[Captain Canard]

I like the Katana myself. It's probably not the best ship, but fits my design tastes.

When it comes to a small ship for dogfighting, I like the heavy fighter that Antigone sells. I equip it with 4 engineered bolt guns and two plasmas, and it'll chew through enemies like a chainsaw. Just don't get too many on your tail, that thing is a bit of a glass cannon. Still, it's fun to fly and looks like a tank!

[zpc]

Battlesnake, Sapporo or Guppy. Erlking is nice as well.

[Wraith]

I been fan of the Cobra, Falx, Moreya, Takoba, and Nodan (Personal bias favorite)

The Xperimental shuttle is a different kind of monster

For L ship I agree with ZPC
all those are really nice L ship to fly

[Niuq]

The Sapphire ships mod off nexus has 3 wonderful medium players ships, no dlc's needed.

[Kackstift]

S = none.. S are only for drone fighting
M = TER/PIO katana 100%.. best all-in-one ship in this game. but it looks boring..
L = The new PAR destroyer is my favorite, M bay, less hair dryer then the old version and fast enough to outrun any L / XL
XL = Erlking but the quest to get him is ♥♥♥♥..

[SirProsik]

The 'free' Odysseus Vanguard can be made into a very nice tank and all around ship with in game equipment mods. TER Shields, PAR Plasma, ARG Flac, and aft lower L turret your choice Slasher mods on all turrets with high reload as main concern and its a beast.

Hunt down a few BUC for mods before befriending them if at all and fix it up :)
Can load it up with SE's and pirate xenon build storages,

[Targaryen22]

I fly the Syn you get for free. Its my flagship, and by far my favorite looking ship. Been using it as my personal ship for forever lol but I use whatever ship in my flagships fleet for docking at places the syn can't (like using a Barracuda to dock at the pirate ship in the Empyrean Curs plot) which is what i'm currently doing now. if I want to get somewhere, I fly the syn.

[TwinChops]

Whatever you are good at in flying.

[heckypecky]

Pegasus Vanguard is my most used ship by far. Feels good, looks good. For combat the ol boring Nemesis Vanguard. Currently I'm having way more fun with disposable Asps. If it explodes - well, get me the next one.

[Farrel]

It's all a matter of what DLCs you have and personal preference.

Amongst small ships, The Xperimental shuttle is arguably the best... Lacking in shields, but when it comes to speed and firepower, it's a beast. But I also have a personal fondness for the Moreya, and to a lesser extent the pegasus and irukanji (if I'm in a small ship, I'm often just scouting or travelling to a larger ship)

For medium ships? Ehh, that's tougher. The Astrid is incredibly quick and very well shielded, but a bit lacking in guns... and brakes. but it does score bonus points for sheer swagger. Katana's are just free to take if you don't mind a bit of a punch up, so I'll often fly one of those for a bit... And if push came to shove and I had to fly something medium? I guess I'd probably jump into a kurokami. (I plan to give the odachi a fair try once I get ship manufacturing up and running again this playthrough)

For large ships? There are fans of the rattlesnake, (A bit flimsy for my blood), fans of the syn (a bit slow, but very powerful)... Personally I like the odysseus vanguard. It's got a surprisingly big hangar, long range main guns, reasonably fast, and reasonably good at turning... But any of the long ranged L ships work for me.

Lastly, for XL ships, the Earlking makes for a fine flagship, but the Asgard takes the crown for when you need to wreck things.