Is it advisable to purchase a Carrier?

[Fight Club]

Hello, lately I have explored the idea of flying a carrier, however, since my intention is getting one with ZEN I have fear it won't be worth it with current meta or something. I am used to flying escorts so I know the turn rate will be a pain, my main concern is if the fighters will do enough DPS, I will of course assists with my general build but my fear is fighters doing no noticeable damage to say they are worth, I also think it depends on the type of fighter, or are they only to distract the target while you hit it?

Any advice would be helpful. It is a new idea that came to my mind.

[Agnithrax]

If you like tanking they are very fun. there are a lot of bad ones out there though and few really good ones. Although by crunching the numbers the t6 fleet suliban silik carrier looks like it's all the flavors of meh; but I have never had more fun in any other carrier. It's small enough to not take up 1/6 of your screen and with good rcs accelerators; not even epic tweaked out re-rolled min maxed rcs just maybe better than purples (i really out to get around to upgrading them one of these days) but just above average ones you can hug the donkey and dhc your way into grand Klingon Battle Tales with some of the stunts you can pull off. Most carriers corner like a brick but Silik set up decently will turn on a dime and give you back 4 cents change. She doesn't look like much on the stats, other that hull that goes all day and pulls a second shift to cover for that guy who's always calling in sick, but really enormous hull and better maneuverability than most with little extra something somethings here and there and you'll have yourself a sweet ride.

[NavFamG]

One of the Delta? Quadrant missions has you fly a carrier at the end part of the mission. If you can find it and do it, you'll get an idea of what flying and fighting one is like.

[Daniel]

I will say this it your game have fun with it fly what you and have fun

[jonnin]

Carriers can be a ton of fun, but you have to watch out for lemons.
a number of them are science based, which is fine, but lack a second deflector, which is not fine as that provides a lot of steady damage.

Fighter damage is not great. That is ok. There are online studies of the fighters and their dps in various scenarios and how to max them out, but don't buy a carrier thinking its going to be a dps machine because fighters. Buy it cause its a good ship that happens to have fighters adding a little to it.
On that note, my current favorite is the paradox. But I think it only has 1 bay; the 2 bay ones... its been a while since one appealed to me.

[cap-boulanger]

There's a balance issue around carriers.

In the past, the sciencey 2-hangar carriers were the only 2-hangar carriers, and they justified the lack of a secondary deflector as a tradeoff.

However... there were at that time "flight deck cruisers" which were full on cruisers with one hangar. And then one of the developers decided to give them a second hangar and rename them "flight deck carriers" (which doesn't even gramattically make sense) ... so they are now a 2-hangar carrier that is fully equal to a non-carrier cruiser with no tradeoffs....

As things stand right now, those "flight deck carriers" (it hurts to even say that) are clearly superior to all other carriers simply because they don't have to sacrifice anything compared to their non-carrier brethren, while the sciencey (and the rare tactical ones) do.

[VoodooMike]

I am primarily a carrier captain, and while I absolutely love flying them they are not going to give everybody the same mileage.

Carriers are possibly the only type of ship that is more "expensive" to make work than science ships in terms of hard-to-get traits and equipment... and the difference between a well-made carrier build and a basic build is much more profound than between a well-made science build and a basic build.

Hangar pets are often locked behind the acquisition of certain ships, and almost all the best carrier starship traits are on lockbox/promo ships. There are very, very few consoles that have any effect on the performance of hangar pets.

Initially your hangar pets will just be supplementary DPS but shouldn't be built around. Without using the Superior Area Denial (SAD) trait from the Mirror Engle (lockbox ship, or from high-priced anniversary bundle) or using Lost Souls pets which are locked to Feklhri carriers, there's little chance your pets will outdamage your ship's weapons.

If you get a hold of the SAD trait then using it in conjunction with cannon-using hangar pets will bump pets into your lead DPS-dealing spot. The difference in damage with or without that trait is like night and day, and is based on an unintended interaction between the trait and a low-powered weapon those hangar pets use.... a bug that has existed for years and years and which they are almost certainly never going to change.

If you go with a Feklhri carrier you don't need SAD, but you'll want the Scramble Fighters trait and some relaunch cooldown doffs. Lost souls have halved relaunch timers by default, and you can get them to relaunch every second or so which will stack the Scramble Fighters buff to 8-10 at all times (+25% stacking hangar pet damage per stack). The souls themselves deal physical melee damage that bypasses shields, so they will rip up single targets.

[jonnin]

As for the no tradeoffs, I believe the flight deck ones engineering heavy seats for all of them (not 100% sure if anything has come out since I last looked at them). I consider that to be a bit of weakness, unless its a hybrid seat that can put something else in the top 2 slots. That is strictly personal opinion; I know some folks love their engineering, but its the other side of the why I didn't grab the 'new' 2 bay ships, to finish out my earlier thought.
Biding my time. Ill pay if they give a 2 bay with a 2nd deflector. Ill pay if they give a 2 bay with 5+ forward weapons and are tactical based (top BO and consoles). Ill play the freebies (won or event etc) until then. But I prefer science over tac.
I played the recluse forever, long ago. I miss it, but it can't keep up anymore.

[Flanker]

One of the best carriers I have is the fleet version of the Jem'Hadar Vanguard Support Carrier - You don't get the console or the trait with the fleet version, but IMO it was worth getting considering it didn't cost real money. It's a science based carrier.

[WolfTooth]

What are peoples thoughts on the Aspero? I bought it a while ago but never managed to make it work really well and it seems subpar.

[Xautos]

this jem'hadar vanguard dreadnought cruiser is sort of like a flight deck cruiser, it comes with its own fighter bays, plus it comes with the added insurance of two escorts and the fact it is far more tougher to take out than a regular carrier. i use it and it hasn't failed me anywhere near as much. the extra muscle just makes it so much easier to take out targets, especially in the DQ missions against the vaadwuar. best bit about this dreanought cruiser is the 4/4 layout so you can spam BFAW regularly while the escorts do their cone fire and the gunboats pump in torpedoes into the hostile ships hulls in quick order.

[Ardenwolfe]

It depends on the carrier and the pets. Personally, I love the Romulan Drone Ships Very powerful. Otherwise, what Voodoo Mike said and said well.

[Daishikaze]

I've had good experiences with the Following ships:

Tzenkethi Tzen-tar Dreadnought carrier
Voth Rampart Command Carrier
Vorgon Rynkodan Carrier
Tholian Jorogumo Carrier
Tholian Tarantula Dreadnought carrier
Caitian Aspero Support Carrier

there are a few others I've had fun with, but I need to spend more time with them as I haven't done nearly as much to improve them as the others. But I can't think of a carrier I haven't had fun with yet, though I haven't be able to play all of them of course

[Omega Man]

The Feklhri carrier with lost souls just rip through everything with their melee and fire damage, and sending them in to take out a tac cube from a safe distance is a joy to behold, and remember to grab the Tactical Fek'ihri Torment Engine which is a mission reward from the mission leap of faith, to add 28% to all the damage they do, just be be sadistic. lol

[VoodooMike]

Originally posted by Omega Man:

The Feklhri carrier with lost souls just rip through everything with their melee and fire damage, and sending them in to take out a tac cube from a safe distance is a joy to behold, and remember to grab the Tactical Fek'ihri Torment Engine which is a mission reward from the mission leap of faith, to add 28% to all the damage they do, just be be sadistic. lol

Unless a console specifically says it affects pets.. it doesn't. The Torment Engine's bonus to fire and physical will not apply to Lost Soul pet damage, only fire and physical damage you deal directly.

[[FuFo] Mortucus]

i have 2 jhem hadar carriers with elite vanguard support frig and the 2 that come with the purchase of the ship for a total of 6 frig equipped drones running a carrier build and anti proton build

so the answer is this you might destroy ♥♥♥♥ faster in a pure dps escort build but can you survive mass damage because my 39k shields and 140k hull with 180% hull restore can survive an attack from anything and lol it off