Plesh Tral, Tholian Meshweaver, Ouborous Raider, Hirogen Hunter, oh my!
It’s hard to pass up the adrenaline junkie, thrill-seeking vibe of a very fast ship with lots of guns. That’s about where the escort and raider roles sit in the starships of Star Trek Online. Anyone who has watched Captain Sisko blow things up in the Defiant probably has a heavily armed place in their heart for an escort.
Escorts and raiders fill a lot of roles in STO, most often they are simply fast-moving firepower platforms, but some also come with focuses on battlefield control or delivering warheads to specific places, very, very quickly. There are enough escorts and raiders in STO to cover a multitude of play styles.
There are a lot of ships in the game that fall into this category so it was not easy to rank and rate them.
10 Breen Plesh Tral heavy raider [T6]
Coming at us from the coldest regions of the Star Trek universe, the Plesh Tral-class heavy raider is a direct upgrade over the Plesh Brek-class raider. It is also a reward from the 2017 Winter event, so now it can only be earned in-game through a Phoenix Prize Pack epic prize token.
Sporting an interesting, very Breen, asymmetrical design the Plesh Tral-class boasts a 4/2 weapon layout with an experimental weapon slot. The starship mastery trait is “Cold Hearted,” which causes drain, slow and resistance loss on weapons fire after using Auxiliary to Emergency Battery or any Pilot bridge officer ability.
The ship also comes with a Sensor Disruption Field console, which is a 5km radius fragile placate. This can be particularly useful for getting out of trouble if the Plesh Tral-class captain finds themselves at the center of attention.
9 Risian corvette [T6]
When it comes to the need for speed and riding in style, the people of Risa really have the best in play. The Risian corvette, a T6 ship that can also be painted up like a racecar, makes an excellent addition to any stable of escorts. It was originally designed as a racing and sporting vessel; the corvette’s profile is dominated by two massive warp nacelles arranged like catamarans with the main engineering section of the vessel in between.
Although it was originally designed as a racing vessel, the Corvette is not without firepower, supporting a 4/3 weapon layout. The starship mastery trait is “Rhythmic Rumble,” which adds damage resistance and reduces weapon power cost upon activating Auxiliary to Dampeners or any Pilot bridge officer ability.
Its console is the Subspace Wake Generator. When activated, the Corvette accelerates hard (+60% speed increase) and any foes caught in the wake suffer physical damage, a reduction in overall speed and turn rate.
8 Mat’Ha raptor [T6]
The Klingon Mat’Ha-class raptor is a Klingon Defense Force starship that boasts itself being the most advanced tactical vessel in the KDF fleet. It has been designed with unparalleled forward firepower and is capable of unleashing devastating torpedo volleys. It represents a radical departure from standard Klingon designs and follows a similar symmetry to Duquv’-class heavy destroyers with a dual-cannon muzzle “head” section and a deflector array similar to the Vaadwaur Manasa-class escort.
The Mat’Ha-class raptor sports a heavy-forward firepower design with a 5/2 weapon layout and a Heavy Spinal Cannons console that acts as this vessel’s charge-up big gun capable of cone AoE disruptor energy damage. As a KDF vessel, this starship is also equipped with a cloak. The mastery trait unlock adds Overwhelming Force to Beam Overload and High Yield torpedoes, creating a charged particle burst or photonic shockwave respectively.
7 Hirogen Hunter heavy escort [T5]
As an escort, the Hirogen Hunter-class heavy escort is extremely nimble and very durable for its classification. It is heavily tactical focused and has several Universal bridge officer seats along with a Tactical Commander seat. The Hunter-class has a kind of work-a-day rusted and worn look to its hull, constructed with a cylindrical engineering hull with two blunt, but blade-like nacelles on the side and a cone-shaped fore section.
The Hunter-class escort has a 4/3 weapon layout and includes an experimental weapon slot. With its console, the Enhanced Damper Field, this ship is capable of a rapid 180-degree U-turn. This is a T5 ship so it has no mastery trait. All Hirogen ships also come with a special ability, Long Range Sensor Masking, which when activated makes the ship undetectable at long range.
The qualities of high durability (massive hull for its type) and a lot of mobility make the Hunter-class a small, efficient warship on its own capable of not just dishing out a lot of firepower, but also capable of taking a beating in situations where it is outnumbered.
For an in-depth conversation on the Hunter-class and its capabilities see this Vox Ex Machina review.
6 Klavek science pilot raptor [T6]
The Klavek-class science pilot raptor builds on the agility and fire-superiority of Klingon raptors and adds the extreme mobility of a pilot ship. This particular variant of the science pilot raptors appears a little bit less aggressive than the others, but it also includes a strong science-leaning in its loadout, this means that it gets a bit more battlefield control while sacrificing some extra firepower.
With a 5/2 weapon layout and an experimental weapon slot, the Klavek-class is not without a lot of withering forward firepower. It supports four Science consoles and a Lt. Cmdr. Science bridge officer seat. The vessel’s mastery trait is “Subwarp Sheath,” which adds more armor penetration the faster the ship is going up to +15%. The console with this craft is the Spatial Sinkhole Generator, which acts like a super-powerful gravity well that adds +7.5% to exotic damage.
This ship comes in a bundle with other pilot raptors and synergizes well with their mastery abilities and consoles. With its strong Science focus and powerful weapon layout, it is also well suited for being built as a torpedo boat.
5 Vaadwaur Manasa assault escort [T6]
As a ship built by the Vaadwaur Supremacy, the Manasa-class assault escort is an extremely powerful and fast vessel capable of tremendous outgoing firepower (with +10 to weapons power). These ships represent the workhorse of the Vaadwaur fleet and can support dual-heavy cannons and come with a console that can emit a powerful spatial barrage.
The Manasa-class supports a 5/2 with an experimental weapon slot. With its console, the Polaron Cannon Barrage, this assault escort can launch a devastating barrage of polaron artillery explosions into the vicinity of the target. Its mastery trait is Frontal Assault that triggers when a cannon ability is used and increases shield hardness and regeneration in the front arc.
This vessel is extremely Tactical focused with five Tactical consoles as well as a Cmdr. and Lt. Cmdr. Tactical bridge officer seating. It also supports an Intel-Science-hybrid bridge officer seat, which opens it up to interesting Intel abilities that can be used to control the battlefield.
4 Romulan T’varo light warbird retrofit [T5]
It is said that the T’varo-class light warbird retrofit is a dagger that slides between the ribs of the enemy, a subtle knife that disappears from sight only to appear briefly to unleash plasma hellfire fury and vanish again.
This vessel supports a 4/3 weapon layout and an experimental weapon, but its biggest benefit is the Romulan enhanced battle-cloak that allows it to stay cloaked while using most bridge officer abilities and firing torpedoes. With a Cmdr. Tactical bridge officer seat, it can prepare for devastating ambush attacks.
The console that comes with the T’varo-class is the Destabilized Plasma Torpedo, given the nickname “the torpedo of love” because of it’s large, swirling crimson-colored model. The weapon is destructible but hits with extreme force, a large AoE, and a lot of plasma burn.
For an in-depth conversation on the T’varo-class and its capabilities see this Vox Ex Machina review.
The T’varo-class should be mentioned alongside its T6 variant, the Malem-class light warbird, which is essentially an upgrade in every way except that it lacks the Destabilized Plasma Torpedo console. Although many players may upgrade themselves to the Malem-class, having the T’varo in the fleet yard means access to an extremely powerful ability.
3 Tholian Meshweaver escort [T5]
The Tholian Meshweaver-class escort is a common vessel seen in the Tholian fleet. Its crystalline shape is based around three thick “blades” that extend out from a narrow central hull and form what appears to be a pyramid from the side. It is Tactical focused starship with a forward gun layout and is capable of equipping heavy dual cannons.
The Meshwaver–class supports as 4/3 weapons layout and an experimental weapon slot. Its heavy Tactical focus is borne out with Cmdr. and Lt. Cmdr. Tactical bridge officer seats and a Lt. Cmdr. Science seat to round it out. It’s T5-U variation also has 5 Tactical consoles meaning its damage can be boosted quite significantly.
As a craft, it is extremely fast, supplies a greater-than-average shield strength and +15 to weapons power. As a result, it can come in fast and do a lot of damage. It is also capable of equipping the full set of Tholian ship consoles that come on other Tholian vessels – although it does not come with its own console.
2 Phantom intel escort [T6]
The Phantom-class intel escort is an overall upgrade over the Defiant-class escort, with which it shares some similarities and a cloaking device. The ship is designed for hit-and-run attacks against fleets of ships, with much of its chassis flattened out and designed with wedges and angles in mind. The Phantom-class looks like a single blade, with its nacelles shielded from view as compact, low-profile segments on the sides.
It supports a heavy Tactical focus and a 4/3 weapon layout with an experimental weapon. The console provides this vessel with a Heavy Phaser Lance weapon that fires forward inflicting massive phaser damage and knocking a system offline. The mastery trait for this ship is “Reciprocity,” which reduces the recharge time on Tactical and Intelligence bridge officer abilities when an opponent misses a shot.
This vessel is also equipped with Active Sensor Arrays that allow it to gather intel about enemy vessels. This opens up the Intelligence Gathering capability that can open up vulnerabilities on enemy ships that can cripple their critical systems, defenses or weapons.
1 Ouroboros temporal raider [T6]
Developed and deployed in the 31st century, the Ouroboros-class temporal raider represents the pinnacle of technology and is used as a tactical asset in the Temporal Cold War. In the hands of a captain, however, she is a powerful weapon’s platform capable of bringing down even the most formidable enemies to bear with a heavily Tactical-focused loadout and a lot of Universal bridge officer seating.
The Ouroboros-class is a beautiful ship to look at, it is sleek with wings that extend from its main engineering hull to contain its temporal capsule drive. Amid its Universal bridge officer seating, there are two Universal-Temporal hybrid seats a Cmdr. and a Lt. Cmdr. making it extremely formidable when it comes to setting up Temporal abilities.
With a 4/2 weapon layout and an experimental weapon, the vessel also supports give Tactical console slots, making it possible to provide extremely strong outgoing weapons fire. Its mastery trait is “Regroup,” which causes Attack Pattern bridge officer abilities to reduce the cooldown on Engineering and Temporal Operative bridge officers. The vessel also comes with a Tactical System Stabilizer console that, when triggered, provides 30% weapon cycle haste for 30 seconds and reduces recharge time for bridge officer abilities by 5%.
This vessel is also able to equip all the other consoles from the Temporal Technologies Set, which makes it almost an unstoppable force able to rip open local space-time and become virtually invulnerable for a short time.
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