Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

All your guides, strategy discussions, request for help on how to play go here. Please use [SPOILER] if relevant.
GDK
Posts: 24
Joined: Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:22 pm

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby GDK » Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:37 pm

I reached the flagship with stealth C on my first try on normal, I have yet to go further than sector 4 with the B. And I wasn't that lucky, shield+ drone is just more awesome than people think.
Merudo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2014 5:01 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby Merudo » Fri Apr 18, 2014 12:27 am

I have been experiencing with Type C ships, and I'm starting to think the Stealth C is actually not so terrible in comparison.

I'd definitely put the Stealth C above the Kestrel C and the Federation C, and perhaps above the Mantis C and the Zoltan C.

The Mini-beam + Laser Charger is quite reliable - the mini-beam is surprisingly damaging and never misses. Moreover if you damage other systems with the beam, the enemy crew will often repair those instead of the weapon/shield systems.

In my experience, Mini-beam + Laser Charger can reliably take down any 2 shields ships, even when they are trying to FTL away - the beam usually do so much damage that the pilot has to abandon his post to repair some system.

The Shield+ drone is sort of mediocre by itself, but once you get Cloak or Shields it actually is very helpful - it can absorb ion attacks, missiles, and also it recharges alongside your normal shield. I'd rather have Shield+ than an extra shield, to be honest.

Long-Range scanner is one of the best augment, and helps a lot with earning scrap.

Moreover due to the anti-drone drone, you don't have to fear drones nearly as much. The mini-beam is also quick enough that you can often take out the enemy's laser before it gets too painful.

For all these reasons (powerful and reliable weaponry, access to the overpowered long-range scanner augment, and a shield+ that will be helpful for a good part of the game) I would actually put the Stealth C in the "good" tier, or at least in the middle tier.
CaptainTeddy
Posts: 12
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 11:25 pm

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby CaptainTeddy » Sat Apr 19, 2014 3:31 am

Yeah I see your point, I used it again to clarify your point and i easily got to sector 8, (I didn't beat the Flagship) but i honestly wouldn't put it above some of the other type c ships you mentioned like Mantis C, Federation C and Zoltan C. The other lone Kestrel C, Why not? :P I will probablt put it in the middle tier of my list because (imo) it doesn't stand up to ships like The Gila Monster, The Shrike, Man of War etc.
Captain_obvious
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:53 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby Captain_obvious » Wed May 14, 2014 8:36 am

Having played the new ships, here are some thoughts on them:

Kestrel C - Boring. The only advantage it has over the other Kestrels is level 2 sensors, everything else is a tradeoff. Dual lasers and ion stunner isn't as impressive as 4x basic lasers or a BL2.

Engi C - Not as good as Engi A, but it's fairly decent. It's not as vulnerable to being boarded early as the other Engi ships, and the Defense Scrambler makes it tempting to use with missiles.

Fed C - I don't know what they were thinking with this ship. The flak artillery is basically a worse version of flak 2 that can't target. I suspect you're probably supposed to just send your Zoltans in as suicide bombers and rely on the cloning to not care about being killed by the artillery.

Zoltan C - This ship is horribly gimped at the start by the weak reactor and reliance on Zoltans and battery, but if you can somehow preserve through that it can be a powerful late-game ship due to the sheer number of reactor bars you can have active at once. The charge ion is great though.

Mantis C - Really just a slightly different flavour of Mantis B. The Lanius is actually better at dealing with early AI scouts than the Boarding Drone, and starting with a lockdown bomb is devilish. It takes a lot of skill to micro the Lanius and Mantis during boarding so the Mantis doesn't die from the oxygen deprivation.

Slug C - Now this is sweet. You can combine mind control and hacking the oxygen to kill enemy crew without ever setting foot on their ship, and doing this as early as sector 1 means you can get great rewards.

Rock C - The crystal crew member makes this a great boarding ship if you can get a teleporter, but it's also a good gunship. No obvious weaknesses and starting with a heavy crystal mk1 is very useful in the first sectors.

Stealth C - This ship doesn't get a lot of love around here, and it's strange to call it a 'stealth ship'. However, the modified laser charger and mini-beam is a great early combo for barely any power. I actually made it through the whole game with the starting weapons and an ion II. The cheaper power requirement for the shield drone becomes really great in the late game.

Lanius A - This is a fairly decent ship, although you really need to exploit hacking to its full potential to deal with enemy weapons systems because the chain laser is very slow to start with. It's reasonably tempting to just vent most of the ship all the time to deal with potential boarders.

Lanius B - Teleporter, two lanius, mind control and a flak I that only takes up one power with an 8 second charge. This ship is very damn good.
User avatar
Twinge
Posts: 281
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:04 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby Twinge » Wed May 14, 2014 1:07 pm

I suppose if we're going to continue using this thread I might as well post my current list. Ships are ranked within tiers, although the differences are often slight. This could easily still change relevantly as I continue to play more AE, but here's where my thoughts are now:

Tier 1:
Carnelian
The Shrike
The Basilisk
The Theseus
Red-Tail
The Torus
Tetragon

Tier 2:
Noether
Ariolimax
Bravais
The Nesasio
Kruos
The Adjudicator
The Kestrel
The Swallow
The Gila Monster
Cerenkov
The Osprey
Tektite

Tier 3:
Man of War
Shivan
Nisos
The Stormwalker
The Fregatidae
DA-SR 12

Tier 4:
Bulwark
The Vortex
Simo-H


Notable placements: I currently have Stealth B in low tier rather than bottom tier; Hacking+Glaive+Cloaking is incredibly powerful, and the subtle buffs (cheaper Shields, no Sector 1/2 Zoltan Bombers) are a relevant boost to the early game issues. Rock A descends further - it's a boarding ship that starts without a Teleporter, which you are now less likely to find and boarding is worse in general. Stealth C takes the new bottom slot - weapons are nice early (same as Stealth A), but the drones are weak and it has no advantages. Rock B's early game advantage lasts less time on Hard anbd once again Boarding is nerfed and lack of venting still a major minus.

Crystal B is comparatively worse with the boarding nerfs (probably no logner deserves its own tier), but is still amazing. Lanius B is the new hotness, featuring the strongest weapon in the game and a powerful Lanius boarder + Mind Control combo. Zoltan A moves up a bit (Hacking+Halberd is great). Zoltan C lands in mid-tier - despite being awkward to use, it is relatively powerful; the Zoltan Shield is always amazing, and the Charge Ion is a great weapon all game long.
FTL Tips & Tricks Video Series

Catch my stream on Twitch

Improve game balance, fix bugs, and have more decisions: Twinge's Balance & Bugfix Mod
project_mercy
Posts: 117
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:31 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby project_mercy » Wed May 14, 2014 5:50 pm

Man, I'm not seeing The Theseus in the top tier. Yes, you have a the 4-man teleporter, but your starting crew and weapon compliment is too goofy to be overly effective without other things, which turns the first two sectors into a craps shoot, and I really find the first two sectors set to the tone for the rest of the game. Maybe you've found more effective strats for it than me :) Me, I'd put it in Tier 3.
Captain_obvious
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:53 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby Captain_obvious » Wed May 14, 2014 11:48 pm

Twinge wrote:Notable placements: I currently have Stealth B in low tier rather than bottom tier; Hacking+Glaive+Cloaking is incredibly powerful, and the subtle buffs (cheaper Shields, no Sector 1/2 Zoltan Bombers) are a relevant boost to the early game issues. Rock A descends further - it's a boarding ship that starts without a Teleporter, which you are now less likely to find and boarding is worse in general. Stealth C takes the new bottom slot - weapons are nice early (same as Stealth A), but the drones are weak and it has no advantages. Rock B's early game advantage lasts less time on Hard anbd once again Boarding is nerfed and lack of venting still a major minus.

Crystal B is comparatively worse with the boarding nerfs (probably no logner deserves its own tier), but is still amazing. Lanius B is the new hotness, featuring the strongest weapon in the game and a powerful Lanius boarder + Mind Control combo. Zoltan A moves up a bit (Hacking+Halberd is great). Zoltan C lands in mid-tier - despite being awkward to use, it is relatively powerful; the Zoltan Shield is always amazing, and the Charge Ion is a great weapon all game long.

Interesting list. I definitely agree about Rock A, maybe if it started with an explosive replicator it wouldn't be so bad.

With Stealth C, I think you've overlooked the advantage of a cheaper shield drone and three drone slots. It makes a late game combo of shield, defense and anti-combat drone extremely viable. Also, the shield drone is roughly equivalent to the cloak in terms of how much it can absorb early on, and you're actually better off against beam drones than the other stealth ships because the anti-combat drone tears them up. It's not a powerful ship, but it's definitely better than the Vortex...
itg
Posts: 130
Joined: Fri Nov 08, 2013 8:37 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby itg » Wed May 14, 2014 11:57 pm

project_mercy wrote:Man, I'm not seeing The Theseus in the top tier. Yes, you have a the 4-man teleporter, but your starting crew and weapon compliment is too goofy to be overly effective without other things, which turns the first two sectors into a craps shoot, and I really find the first two sectors set to the tone for the rest of the game. Maybe you've found more effective strats for it than me :) Me, I'd put it in Tier 3.


The Theseus is awkward at first, but the 4-man teleporter is practically the only weapon you'll need for the rest of the game. All you have to do is hang on for a bit until you can get your defenses up, pick up a couple more crewmen, and then you should be more or less set for the rest of the game.

As far as boarding tactics go, most of the time you shouldn't wait until your bombs are charged to send in your boarders. Half the time you won't even need them, and other times, they'll be ready before your boarders are dead. Don't be afraid to let the Lanius suffocate the Mantis. Try to make sure both boarders die at the end of the fight, so you can have them at full health for the next battle. It's easy to intentionally suffocate the mantis, but the Lanius is trickier. You may be able to micro the Lanius a bit so he dies first, but the mantis can still finish off the enemy.
User avatar
Twinge
Posts: 281
Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 4:04 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby Twinge » Thu May 15, 2014 2:31 am

Captain_obvious wrote:Interesting list. I definitely agree about Rock A, maybe if it started with an explosive replicator it wouldn't be so bad.


This is my plan for the Balance Mod - makes the ship have at least have something interesting about it.

Captain_obvious wrote:With Stealth C, I think you've overlooked the advantage of a cheaper shield drone and three drone slots. It makes a late game combo of shield, defense and anti-combat drone extremely viable.


3 Drone slots are somewhat relevant and helpful, though I find the Shield Drone quite weak even at 2 power; the 3-power version is garbage as far as I'm concerned.

Captain_obvious wrote:Also, the shield drone is roughly equivalent to the cloak in terms of how much it can absorb early on, and you're actually better off against beam drones than the other stealth ships because the anti-combat drone tears them up.


Cloaking can prevent the enemy from firing at all or dodge a handful of projectiles at a 80/90% chance on the Stealth B/A. The Shield Drone requires a drone part and then only blocks a little over one projectile on average.

As for the Anti-Drone Drone - most frustrating thing in the game to try to use IMO. It has a hugely long cooldown between shots and misses horrifyingly often. I haven't tested this thoroughly yet, but I loosely estimate that it misses about 30% of the time at present. With how unreliable it is, cloaking will handle drones just as well or better if you know how to do it correctly.
FTL Tips & Tricks Video Series

Catch my stream on Twitch

Improve game balance, fix bugs, and have more decisions: Twinge's Balance & Bugfix Mod
Captain_obvious
Posts: 20
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2014 2:53 am

Re: Ship Tier List [SPOILERS]

Postby Captain_obvious » Thu May 15, 2014 7:09 am

Twinge wrote:3 Drone slots are somewhat relevant and helpful, though I find the Shield Drone quite weak even at 2 power; the 3-power version is garbage as far as I'm concerned.

On it's own it's not great, but if you combine it with a Defense drone (ideally the Mk II, because it blocks lasers, ions and missiles) and a decent evasion, you can build the Supershield up and thus protect yourself from bombs, boarders, hacking and mind control. The heavy power requirement is usually what stops me from using it, so having 2 vs 3 power makes a big difference. Stealth C also makes it more viable by having two really cheap weapons that are capable of doing as much as 6 damage in a single volley when combined, which is amazing for two power. I've taken down the flagship twice using only 5 bars of weapon power!

As for the Anti-Drone Drone - most frustrating thing in the game to try to use IMO. It has a hugely long cooldown between shots and misses horrifyingly often. I haven't tested this thoroughly yet, but I loosely estimate that it misses about 30% of the time at present. With how unreliable it is, cloaking will handle drones just as well or better if you know how to do it correctly.

I beg to differ, Stealth C has a much easier run against early drones. The Anti-Drone can be frustrating, but it has a chance of destroying the drone outright, which gives you a respite while it's repaired. With cloaking, you can dodge shots at the right moment but you're correspondingly vulnerable during the cool down. Plus, cloaking doesn't really protect against boarding drones, mind control or hacking the way the Anti-Drone does.